


Orochi

by Ka1ne_Cr0mwell



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Alternate Universe - Avatar & Benders Setting, Azula (Avatar) Redemption, Azula is a Bro-Con (Avatar), Blood and Violence, Blue Spirit Azula (Avatar), But there will be NO Incest, Eventual Smut, Expect long chapters, Explicit Language, F/F, F/M, Graphic Description, Horrors of War, M/M, Mai will never be bored, Multi, Other, Protective Azula (Avatar), Realistic, References to Drugs, Spirits, This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things, Unplanned Pregnancy, Wholesome Azula (Avatar), Zuko (Avatar) is Badass, Zuko (Avatar) is not Nice, dark side of humanity, major cannon divergance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-03
Updated: 2021-02-02
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:47:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 52,198
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26492875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ka1ne_Cr0mwell/pseuds/Ka1ne_Cr0mwell
Summary: Azula should have died that night. But Zuko's soft heart saved her and healed her from the cruel manipulations of Ozai. Zuko fakes his death when the Avatar returns and it falls to Azula to find the Avatar with her Uncle Iroh.
Relationships: Aang & Katara (Avatar), Aang/Toph Beifong, Azula & Iroh (Avatar), Azula & Ty Lee (Avatar), Azula & Zuko (Avatar), Azula/Ty Lee (Avatar), Great Spirits & Zuko (Avatar), Jet (Avatar) /Mai (Avatar) /Original Male Character, Katara & Zuko (Avatar), Katara/Zuko (Avatar), Sokka/Suki (Avatar), Sokka/Yue (Avatar), Yue & Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 56
Kudos: 121





	1. Orochi's Attack

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own anything Avatar the Last Airbender. You will probably see a fair amount of influence about the ways of the nations, spirits, and bending influenced by Vathara's Embers, so initial thought bunnies on that are due credit to Vathara for their amazing work.  
> This will be my first time actually trying to put something out there for people to read. I hope you enjoy it.  
> For those who have already read chapters one and two, there are not any big changes to the story itself but I personally believe that my amazing Beta, NovemGirl, has been able to help me improve the overall quality of the story. Editing is taking longer than planned due to life, but things are on its way

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the midst of living their everyday lives growing up in the Fire Nation a demonic spirit attacks, changing the fate of the world and many lives. Meanwhile, Azula learns what means the most to her and comes to an important realization.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Current formatting rules for AO3:  
> “Blablabla...yady yada...dialog”  
> ‘Are for active thoughts such as: Did father really intend to do that?’  
> *Are to be used for flashbacks*  
> {\ To be used for special images that are shared? /}
> 
> Thank you very much for your patience. This is the repost and final edited version of chapter 1. I hope that you enjoy

“A long time ago, before Agni created the Dragons, Agni and Tui had a child together. This child was named Orochi. He was the first Dragon. A being of Water and Fire. But shortly after his birth, Agni and Tui separated, leaving her brother Agni and their child Orochi while she had fallen in love with La. When the other Great Spirits discovered that Tui and Agni had a child, they were forced to denounce Orochi and abandon him. There was nothing bad about the Spirits having kids. It was the fact that a Brother and Sister had a child of their own that was so forbidden and outcast by the Great Spirits.

“Orochi was not allowed to be recognized as what he truly was. He was instead admonished, abandoned, and branded as a demonic monstrosity and hated by all spirits. You could imagine that this brought the originally bright and warm hearted Orochi to a cold hatred that he ended up becoming the very demon they denounced him to be. Even Koh, the Spirit of Death and Evil incarnate wouldn’t stoop to befriend Orochi…” 

-?-

Azula thought that Zuko was many things. Was he soft hearted? Yes. Quick to anger? Yes. Were his firebending skills inferior to her own prodigiousness? Yes. Disappointment in their father’s eyes? Yes. Too emotional? Yes. Foolish? Absolutely YES! If she really bothered, Azula’s list could go on for days.

However, by her ninth birthday, Azula realized there was one thing she could never really agree with their father on: did all these things make Zuko weak? That, she was not so sure about. Zuzu definitely had a tendency to crack under pressure, and listen to their mother a bit too much. Having become a soft-hearted individual, Zuko tended to treat others with respect and kindness, even if it meant disregarding his right to rule by both blood and birth. 

These traits easily consider him a fool above all others.

For all his faults, Zuko was many other things. He was firm in his beliefs. Brave. Quite insightful at times. Persistent. Determined. And he had all of Fire's superior rage in abundance. When she considered it, Zuko was the closest thing Azula had to an equal; not that she would ever admit this aloud.

Like how he still came to her room on nights of thunderstorms, even after she had learned to wield lightning and lost her fear of storms. He had taken up his swords from Master Piandao, although he was a firebender. It was unseemly for a firebending Crown Prince to use anything but fire, but Zuko was actually good at it. His swordsmanship was far better compared to the fools that called themselves Masters. Especially his capability to create his own skillful and impressive firebending move despite how a Prince should never be knocked to his back.

Though he was many things, Azula wholeheartedly agreed that Zuko was unfit to be the next heir. But could he really be considered a failure within Sozin's Divine bloodline? Not likely. Weak? She did not think she could consider calling someone who draws on their strengths to compensate for their weaknesses as such. She even suspected that Zuzu could be a firebending prodigy in a way that he could actually match Azula, were he to cast off traditional firebending and discover his own.

However, his weakness with traditional bending was what drew the attention of their father the most, undoubtedly causing the Fire Lord to despise his only son and next purported Fire Lord. Though Azula could not complain because Zuko’s ‘weakness’, and the fact that their father despises it and him, is what would bump her ahead of Zuko as next in line for the throne. If that scenario were to become a reality, then she was perfectly content with Zuko’s floundering.

As Azula was playing a game of Hide and Explode with Zuko, these thoughts ran through her mind. She had finally gotten Zuko to play with her. This in itself was a rarity and caused her to further question her father’s teachings about manipulation and power plays. These were her traditional methods of attempting to get Zuko to play and were met with much resistance. When she tried a different angle, taking a page from her mother’s book, she was met with Zuko, the willing participant. He was suspicious of the change in her tactics, but that is beside the point. He was playing a game with her and that was something! This development caused Azula to further question the legitimacy of her mother’s teachings being labeled as ‘weak’ by her father. 

As Azula was wandering the halls of the palace in search of her brother, she thought about another skill Zuko was exceptional at: stealth. She was having an interesting time finding him in their game of hide and explode and had lost track of him a while ago. She relegated herself to just searching between places she knew he frequented.

However, stealth is another point of contention, as her father rather dislikes the skill. Ozai believes that it doesn't matter how good of a spy or assassin he might be capable of being; it is not an essential skill for the Crown Prince and heir to have. This is especially true for an heir that is overwhelmingly weak in the things that do matter. However, Father has long since given up hope on Zuko, so she thinks maybe he could see Zuko as a good enforcer. Zuzu isn't completely useless, at least in her eyes.

As she is lost in thought, the very object of her reverie startles her. 

"I'm getting bored with this Lala." Azula froze. Her eyes went wide with shock but she dare not flinch. She quickly steeled herself and inadvertently sent an unaware staff member scurrying for their life when she narrowed her eyes. She quickly recalls Father's first rule. If someone ever gets one up on you, never let them know. And if they do find out, kill them.

‘A good enforcer indeed…’ had Zuzu really been tailing her the entire time? If so, he would have been right behind her in their game, following her, silently watching without her ever aware for all this time. Azula quickly sifted through her memory of all of the things she said and did while searching for him as she was seemingly unaware of his presence right behind her. Father had been recently instructing her to detect others’ internal fire. She has even been practicing on her brother, but it felt like he just appeared out of thin air.

'He could have taken a knife to me or killed me in any number of ways if he had been following me.' The thought made her uneasy. Father definitely would have been proud to see such a ruthless streak in the pathetically soft hearted Zuko if he had done as much. It would have been the beneficial thing for him to do to earn their father's respect and attention. And it would definitely secure his seat on the throne with no questions asked.

Azula steadily strangled her dire thoughts. She would never admit these things out loud and would do everything in her power to prevent them from happening. This is precisely why she so actively made things so difficult for him. Like having Ty Lee practice chi blocking on him right before a demonstration for father. This was who her Zuzu was. So easy to manipulate, to rile up, and to utilize for her own means. She would be stupid to ignore his unique hidden gems and she found it wasteful to discount his usefulness by merely tossing him aside.

‘If only I could find a way to morph him,' She thought to herself. 'Change him for the better as father had done with me… Hmmmm...We’ll see about that.’ Azula turned around and feigned practiced boredom as to not let on that he had caught her by surprise. She found she had to do this more often as she discerned what her brother was really like.

“Come ooon... Zuzu.” Azula managed to both snap and drone on in her commanding voice. “We are both bored with this. Let’s go do something else.”

-?-

A couple days after their game of hide and explode, a terrible out of season hurricane began tearing through the Fire Nation. This was accompanied by very strange reports that the cause was a terrifyingly evil water spirit. Azula scoffed at the peasants’ weak and superstitious expositions. They were all foolish. 'Humans make our own destiny; nothing else can keep control over us. However, the hurricane itself was an issue. What is really going on out there?'

As she ponders the phenomenon that has arrived at the Fire Nation’s doorstep, Azula hears a deafening roar just outside her room on the veranda surrounding the turtleduck pond. She shoved her way through the sliding door leading to the garden and ran to the grassy area. She looked up and was greeted by a ginormous white scaled, eight headed dragon staring down at her. It had manes of raging silvery white fire. Its teeth and claws like dangerously sharpened glaciers. The scales reflecting the full moon’s light. Its eyes. They show only cold, searing fire. The wind howls with an eerie doom-filled chorus of foreboding. Overhead, the thunder booms like the drum beats at the gates of Koh’s Lair. The beast’s growls sound like a menacingly evil laugh, laced with undertones promising certain death. The blazing wind whipped her face with shards of hail while the ground rumbled and the grass turned slick as ice, bringing Azula to her knees.

A cold white light of fire made the palace facade burn. The entire scene was macabre and foreboding. The beast’s burning gaze caused Azula to freeze in place, and when spears of silvery ice coated in white flames began forming around her, she lost all will to fight. She could only kneel in place with her arms hanging limply at her sides. For the first time in her life, Azula was unable to draw upon her inner fire and leap into action. She had quickly resolved that she was going to die tonight in this spot and there was nothing she could do to stop this fate from happening. Herself, Ozai, Ty Lee, Mai, Ursa, the entire Fire Nation… Zuko. They were all nothing beneath the will of such beings. Everything and everyone was rendered meaningless.

Azula's heart was filled with dread and fear as she watched the ice spears begin to swirl and rear back like a scorpion-snake poised to strike. Despite resigning herself to this new fate, she was unable to close her eyes. Although she was too paralyzed with fear to physically fight, she would at least stare her fate in the eyes as it destroyed her. She refused to die a complete coward. As she tracked the movement of the flaming ice spears that were aimed directly at her person, she was forcefully shoved out of the way. When she caught her bearings and zeroed in on the spot she had just vacated, she saw two things instantaneously: a bout of golden lightning that sliced directly between the terrifying dragon and the silhouetted figure of an all too familiar young boy and a flash of flaming white that viciously stabbed said boy directly through his heart.

Azula couldn’t hear the scream that tore out of her throat over the deafening thunder. She felt as if her heart was being stabbed a million times. Did she really care so much about this boy, despite all of her tormenting and hate just so she could reap father’s approval? The lightning faded and the young boy, Zuko, slumped slightly before her. A gaping hole was all that was left in his chest where his too soft heart should be. His skin was dyed crimson with his blood in the moonlight. Remnants of the cold white fire burned at the wounds riddled throughout his entire body, including his missing heart.

Zuko fought to stay standing, even though he should be in a heap on the ground. The hurricane made him sway unsteadily, but he stood his ground before the beast. Though the hail and wind sliced him up bit by bit, he was determined to fight the impossible. He had shoved Azula out of the way of certain death, which she attributed to his too soft heart. She was sure he was still holding onto the belief Mother instilled in his mind that he needed to protect Azula. Zuko had the bravery to act, whereas Azula had lost all hope.

A familiar looking gold lightning struck down towards Zuko, who reached out to it while still staring down the eight-headed dragon. This new lightning strike took the shape of a dragon as it drew into Zuko’s body, surrounding him in the sparks and flame of Summer’s Noon Sun. It seemed as if Agni himself was granting Zuko the power to fight this monster. An overwhelming heat and fire surrounded him and beckoned to his call, strengthening him and helping him stand tall. He was towering over an awestruck Azula with righteous might. Her blood trembled and her inner fire warmed, feeling bolstered from the sun-like presence before her. Her fear dissipated and she began to feel calm and protected.

Zuko looked like a predator preparing to pounce on its prey. He launched himself through the white dragon’s chest, leaving only a trail of lightning in his wake. The nightmarish beast collapsed as Zuko left a hole in its chest to match his own. When he was standing still again, Zuko stared down at the heart thumping in his hands. The dragon withdrew from Zuko, causing Zuko to fall to his knees. The presence of the dragon made Azula feel as if she were directly in the presence of the sun. She could feel her power increase infinitely and she felt invincible.

One name screamed inside her head: ‘Agni! Agni himself had deemed to make his presence known tonight to fight alongside Zuko, allowing him to defeat the beast in one devastating blow with the help of divine intervention.’ Agni was coiled around Zuko and they were both staring into each other's eyes. No words were spoken, only the howling wind and the roaring thunder could be heard, though Aula felt there was an unspoken conversation happening before her eyes. They remained like that for what seemed to be an eternity. 

Azula did not notice the presence of others that had come to stand near her. Once the additions arrived, they prostrated themselves on the grass. Zuko and Agni suddenly nodded to each other and Agni’s blazing warmth of life left Zuko. As he flew upwards, the sky itself looked as if it was shattering and the raging storm was brought to an end. Azula looked up and noticed that only a light misting rain remained and the full moon was illuminating the garden by the turtleduck pond as if it were noon on a sunny day.

After Agni had vanished into the heavens, Zuko collapsed onto his side, his back to the corpse of the white dragon, and stared at the monster’s heart pounding away in his hands as if it were still alive. Zuko continued staring at it trying to decide what to do with it. After what seemed to be a painfully long moment in time, the color had drained from Zuko’s face and he began to look exceptionally weak as he lay slumped on the ground. Azula looks away from Zuko’s prone form and finally takes notice of the Fire Sages gathered around her as they whisper in horror and awe. Everyone watches as Zuko struggles valiantly to get back to his knees and peer up at the moon, letting the rain wash the blood from his face. He looks down at the heart and the absence of his own heart from his chest. Azula knew with terrifying clarity that she was likely about to lose Zuko.

She had a feeling that it was for the best, as it were. The only way for Zuko to have a peaceful end was here and now. Regardless, that did not stop the tears pouring from her eyes. Thankfully, no one noticed the intense feelings threatening to consume her for the moment. Everyone watched as Zuko climbed weakly to his feet, dragging every one of his steps towards the turtleduck pond. In the first of Agni’s lightning strikes, the pond had dried up completely and all that remained was a dark crimson pool that trailed from the white dragon’s body. Unable to avert their gazes from the events unfolding before them, Zuko flopped lifelessly into the pond of blood with the still-beating heart in his hands.

Seconds turned into minutes. Minutes turned into an hour. Still nothing stirred from the pond. However, Azula couldn’t shake the feeling that something big was about to happen. She continued watching and waiting for the impossible. After what felt like an eternity, time felt like it suddenly stopped. The wind died down, the sky had fully cleared, and the garden became eerily still. When the rain stopped, the fires went out, and nothing dared to break the sudden deafening silence. The moon illuminated the surrounding garden and its silvery beam of light narrowed to focus solely on the bloody pond. A monstrous feeling mist, composed of the beast’s blood, began creeping towards and enveloping the dragon’s corpse. The mist began to take the form of the eight-headed beast that rose into the sky and stared down into the pond.

Azula felt overwhelming fear in its presence, though she did not detect any ill will from the ghost. She noticed it seemed to be radiating a strangely calm aura. It was most definitely capable of wielding terrifyingly evil powers, but it was seemingly content. Zuko had risen from his prone position in the pond. The moonlight framed his figure as he stared up at the dragon with the beating heart in his hand. The mist seemed to converge on Zuko and swirl around him. As Azula stood in place and watched her brother with a horrified expression on her face, she felt the sting of the air on her face. The miasma from its being was creeping towards Zuko, and the mist of blood began seeping into his body. Eternity continued in a stilled sense until the entire mist was gone.

The blood had emptied from the pond and the dragon’s corpse had deflated into a pile of skin, bones, scales and claws. Zuko was still in the moonlight as it lifted him out of the pond and into the air. Water began gushing like a natural spring from the depths of the pond. Azula watched as the mass of blood and flesh coursed around Zuko, closing and healing his wounds in the concentrated magical moonlight. Parts of the skeleton from the corpse glowed and spun around him, shrinking and taking the form of a human’s skeleton, replacing his spine, ribs, and seemingly every cell of bone within him.

Zuko threw his head back and released an excruciating scream laced with an echo of the monster’s roar. Bones sunk into his body, his flesh converged, and blood flowed through his veins. His body was surrounded with silvery white flames that danced along his skin. His desecrated body was being made anew and he was very painfully aware of every bit. Every snap of a bone into place and every single inch of skin stitched together. Azula could only cringe as she watched. She was unable to tear her eyes away from the grisly scene and just knew this would be the fuel for many nightmares yet to come. The Fire Sages mirrored Azula’s posture and expression as they prostrated themselves to the ground. They yanked their hats from their heads as they bore witness to the gruesome miracle happening right before their eyes.

By the time Zuko’s body was fully healed, the terrifying presence diminished. However, the Moon still held him in its grasp, not yet done with the mortal. Its silvery light seeped into Zuko, bolstering him and finalizing the healing process. Zuko’s toned body was restored to how it looked after he began training regularly. In addition, his nails grew into claws, his ears elongated and tapered to points, his hair lengthened and the roots turned silvery hue. 

Azula realized that although he survived, her Zuzu would no longer be the boy he once was. ‘Why had he foolishly fought to survive when it was absolutely impossible?’ He had miraculously survived, sure. But at what cost? He just cast away his own humanity and had taken the very heart of the monster who brought down absolute destruction upon him.

Azula looked on as the moon lowered Zuko back to the ground. She watched as its concentrated light disappeared and the sky returned to normal. Her eyes widened as she saw him stand tall looking stronger than she had ever seen him. He gazed up at the stars and she could see him feel and relish in the small breeze that returned, welcoming his rebirth. She noticed the white flame that illuminated his figure dissipating with his calming breaths. As she observed the phenomenon, a thought had begun forming in the back of Azula’s mind. Movement from his direction caused her to put that thought on hold.

Zuko took one slow step, then another, testing his new body and feeling the changes settle. He walked past the Fire Sages stopping before Azula and looked down at her. The moon shone behind his head like a halo, silhouetting his face. When she looked into his eyes, she could see the echoes of the cold white fire as he calmly gazed down at her. Zuko crouched so he could be eye to eye with Azula. His face still looked the same as he gazed at her fondly and he still had his pure gold eyes that mark him as one of Sozin’s bloodline. She felt his hand as he pushed the soaked strands of hair that clung to her face and tucked them behind her ear. A feeling of comfort washed over her. His other hand shot out as he quickly grabbed her and pulled her into his familiar embrace.

“It’s all over Lala. You’re safe now.” Azula exhaled the breath she felt she had been holding the entire time. Her heart, which felt like it had also stopped, began beating furiously. All at once oxygen filled her lungs, her heart thawed, and her blood pounded so hard she could not hear anything else for a moment. She clutched onto her older brother as if he would disappear any second. As she held onto him for dear life, her sobs finally broke free. It was finally over and Zuko hadn’t died. He was right here with his heart thumping against her ear. The natural heat of a firebender warming his living body. He had changed during his transformation- almost beyond recognition- but Azula didn’t care. His body could change a thousand times like the phoenix rebirthed from ashes and she wouldn’t care so long as her Zuzu was still there.

Other thoughts began racing through her mind about how they had been growing distant and fighting. She had been following their father’s way and using him, but she realized that course of action was a huge mistake. It was tearing them apart. ‘No more!’ she thought. She would have to keep up appearances but, she was Azula, that was what she was good at! She vowed then and there that she would no longer allow them become enemies and be torn apart. She loves Zuko and that was not a weakness, regardless what her father said. She had felt Agni’s fire. She could feel the life and love surrounding them now. That was what Agni’s blessing was meant to be. She would hold dear to that and cherish her brother from here on like their Mother had wished of them. They would both have to act like Ozai’s perfect little children, but she wouldn’t let him drag Zuko and herself into the depths of Koh’s Lair with him any longer.

Azula looked up as clouds covered the moon and plunged the night into darkness. Suddenly, Zuko slumped unconscious into her arms. Azula was terrified at this sudden development. The Fire Sages quickly stood and rushed to her to help lift Zuko off of her. They frantically searched to see what was wrong and were relieved when they realized he had merely passed out. Azula hugged Zuko’s head tightly to her chest and wouldn’t let him go. The Fire Sages collapsed backwards onto their arses, mentally exhausted with a look of awe and wonder on their faces. As she stared at Zuko’s prone form, the thought she had earlier came to the forefront of her mind again and was forming rapidly.

While Azula held onto Zuko, she had an epiphany and determined with a resolute conviction and undoubtable clarity:

‘Of all things, Zuko is not weak…’

-?-

Azula sat at Zuko’s bedside and looked at him as he rested peacefully. His face was so calm and showed zero signs of the chaos that happened only an hour ago. Watching him sleep helped keep the nightmarish memories away. She tightly held his hand, constantly feeling for his pulse to make sure that he was actually alive. Zuko’s heart was beating with such force that she was concerned that something may be wrong. Even more so, though his pulse was so strong, it was also very slow and steady, almost eerily so. Azula couldn’t help but place her brother’s hand back to her cheek where he had caressed the hair out of her face. She felt exceptionally calm whenever she did so. 

Azula was thoroughly stricken when she thought about how far she had strayed from her father’s teachings. Feelings provided no real advantage. They only served to make you weak, susceptible, and they clouded one’s perception. They were nothing but a liability. Of course, it was okay to use other people’s feelings against them. And they could be an extremely helpful tool used to rile people up, a strong person should steer clear of emotions and other sentiments associated with feelings. Ozai’s words were tearing their way through her mind; clawing their way out of the darkest recesses. The hand she placed on her cheek felt like a fortress that protected and helped her to weather the storm that was beginning to rage within herself.

After trying to silence Ozai’s voice, she noticed she had subconsciously climbed into her brother’s bed and buried herself deep into his side under the sheets. She was relishing in his warmth and his steadily beating heart lulled her into a peaceful state that allowed her to completely tune out Ozai’s insistent voice in her mind. His influence on Azula had taken root very deeply in her mind and she was now able to see that he cared nothing about her except trying to turn her into a monster. Ozai was tearing her away from her beloved older brother and sullying the memory of their mother by reiterating how weak they both were. Azula had been so close with Zuko when they were very young children. Things began to change when Azula started bending and everyone realized she was a prodigy. That was when Ozai really began to pit brother against sister. Their father was actively trying to erase every human feeling within Azula because she was the perfect heir; a bending prodigy and so easy to mold into the perfect weapon. He caused her to despise her mother and actively encouraged her to have no qualms about killing her own brother.

Despite all these things, however, Zuko still cared. This was evident in the fact that he had risked his life to save her. He stood between her and that monster. The evil spirit that she knew nothing about, except the fact that she wished it never existed. One bonus was that whatever the spirit was, it is gone now. It was glaringly obvious that Agni had personally interfered in the evening’s events to lend Zuko a hand in defeating the beast. It was also obvious that somehow the Moon saved Zuko by breathing life back into him. Because of Agni and the Moon, Zuko lives, though not without the merging of the monster’s heart, blood, and flesh with his own. It had undoubtedly changed him, but, as far as she could tell, he was still her Zuzu. He still foolishly loved her and would continue to protect her despite everything she had done to him. 

She would never forget the events from this evening, nor would she ever let anything come between her and her beloved brother. She makes a silent vow to forever cherish his love and do everything she could to protect him from their father’s ire. Together, they will learn how to turn the tables on Ozai and manipulate him without him becoming wise to their plot. She will do all she is capable of to make him believe everything is as it was. She will do everything in her power to convince Ozai that Zuko is useful, so as to not have him killed, but she will not let Ozai become wise to the fact that she is no longer on his side. This way they both had a fighting chance at surviving life in the palace until Zuzu decided what they would do next.

As Azula snuggled contently into Zuko’s side, she had completely forgotten about the presence of the Fire Sages. At the moment only one remained in the room with them, the Head Fire Sage of Capital Island, Hiroto. The sound of another Fire Sage trying to quietly sneak into the room brought her out of her reverie. She froze and took stock of her surroundings. They were all silently watching the now white-haired Zuko sleep in his bed. 

The new arrival whispered to the Head Sage:

“We have finished excavating the remaining corpse from the garden and brought it to the temple. The guards and staff have been drugged and coerced into believing that the incident was merely a really bad storm that quickly enveloped the area. What shall we do with the Prince and the Princess? His physical appearance is altered and quite noticeable. And the Princess saw the whole thing.” 

Azula tensed when the question of what to do with her and Zuko was brought up. She wrapped a protective arm around Zuko while still pretending to be asleep. She wasn’t ready to make herself known to be awake. She had a feeling they might know something about what happened to Zuzu.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the Head Sage’s reply. “When the Prince wakes up, we will speak with him about the incident. He must be convinced to dye his hair back to black. At least this way we can try to make the change seem gradual rather than suddenly draw attention to tonight. As for Princess Azula, I am sure that if she wishes to keep her brother alive, she will stay quiet about tonight’s events for his sake.” The Head Sage paused for a moment, then added: “Oh, and ensure the rest of the corpse is processed and forged for the Prince. He will most likely need it in due time.”

Azula believed the Head Sage said what he did for her sake. She was absolutely positive he had seen her climb into Zuko’s bed and knew she was still awake. Regardless, she still feigned sleep, hoping to hear more about what had happened. The other Sage seemed uncertain for a moment and hesitated to leave. 

The Head Sage peered down at the man with a serious look and spoke to his younger peer, “What is it Lee. Give voice to what is on your mind.” 

The other Sage, Lee, bowed with his hands clasped behind his back. He raised his head with a suspicious look in his eyes and voiced what was troubling him to the Head Sage, “Shouldn’t we tell Fire Lord Ozai about this, Hiroto?” He paused and shook his head a little, “I mean Head Sage. That was the demon spirit Orochi we saw tonight. This is not something that should be withheld from the Fire Lord’s knowledge. That beast had tried to kill Princess Azula, and now its heart and blood resides within the fool- SMACK”

Lee’s words were abruptly halted by a loud smack to the back of his head, which seemed to reverberate off the walls. All he could mutter in reply was a meek “urk” sound. 

“How dare you say that! The Fire Lord is the fool here! He has been turning his daughter into a monster, and pushing away his son who is the best hope our people have for a decent Fire Lord. Agni has long been sick with Sozin’s line for the atrocities they have committed upon the world! We have finally been blessed with an heir who has the potential to lead us out of this wretched war, and you dare to call him a fool? If it wasn’t for Avatar Kyoshi’s decree forcing the Fire Nation to be loyal to the Fire Lord, this would have never happened to begin with and the royal line wouldn’t have been cursed with insanity in it’s never ending pursuit for more power!”

“But sir, saying such things is treason!” Lee looked at the Head Fire Sage incredulously as he said this. 

It seemed clear to Azula that Fire Sage Lee was a kow-towed butt-kissing willied git. The Head Fire Sage looked severely at Lee. All of a sudden there was a gross gurgling sound as the Head Fire Sage stabbed his clawed hand through his corrupted junior’s chest, clenching his heart. “S-Sir?” Lee looked up at his elder with horror in his eyes.

“Sozin and Azulon were treacherous monsters who ordered the extinction of all dragons. You remember, the original Firebenders? The predecessors to every firebender that has graced this world? Sozin’s line has done nothing but bring terror upon the rest of the world and Ozai is gleefully continuing in his father’s and grandfather’s footsteps. We were blessed when Iroh had awakened to the truth of the world and heeded the Great Spirit’s wishes for him. If you recall, he “exterminated” the remaining dragons so they would no longer be hunted and destroyed. Then we were further blessed with the beacon of hope that is Prince Zuko. He, who has a true heart and could lead the Fire Nation back to the way it should be. He who could truly bring greatness and honor back into this once great nation.

“Tonight, Agni himself dubbed Zuko his warrior and helped him to remove Orochi’s curse. Orochi, finally freed from his prison of insanity, saw this and decided to go to rest, giving his heart, soul, and power over to restore Zuko. The Great Spirits, and Agni himself have seen fit to remove Prince Zuko from the Royal Line and make Zuko as the new Orochi. Orochi, a once Great Spirit and the first son of Agni. In light of these startling events, Princess Azula herself starts to show signs of hope to be a fitting heir for the Fire Nation. Zuko’s actions and the resulting near demise of himself in order to save his sister, has restored her heart…” Azula was frozen in place and her face held a look of absolute terror as she lay on Zuko’s chest and watched as Head Fire Sage Hiroto held Fire Sage Lee’s heart, with the veins still connected, out of his chest. She dared not move a muscle and continued to watch the interaction playing out by the foot of the bed.

“And you would dare go to the corrupt Fire Lord Ozai so that he may kill Agni’s new son and torture his poor daughter back into becoming a monster? You would be singlehandedly dooming the Fire Nation and the entire world to a fate where death would be preferred!” 

A seething rage poured from the Head Fire Sage, flaring the candles in the room to the ends of their wicks as he set flame to Lee’s heart. “I don’t think so! As long as I draw breath, I cannot, will not allow that to happen.” Hiroto instantaneously set fire to the entirety of the other man. Lee stood there mortified as he was burned alive, unable to scream or breath, while he was quickly being turned into ash by the Head Sage’s azure flame. Lee’s eyes, which were wide with terror, could do nothing but stare directly into the Head Fire Sage’s platinum gold eyes. His arms and legs had disintegrated all the way to the torso and the lower half of his abdomen was naught but ash. All the while, azure fire continued to eat away at him. “It would do you well, Lee, to remember that a Fire Sage’s Loyalty is to Agni first and foremost, regardless of any Avatar’s decree! Make sure you repent properly if he deems you worthy enough to see him!”

Azula couldn’t turn away from the horrifying scene as the Head Sage burnt the rest of the man into ash within seconds. A scream or beg for mercy was never heard and never would be. Fire Sage Lee merely ceased to exist within a matter of minutes. Azula filed this information away for future reference. From this point on, she would remember to ALWAYS show respect to the Fire Sages, especially the Head Sage. Hiroto stood there for a moment and took a few deep breaths. Slowly, the candles returned to their calm demeanor. While brushing off the rest of the ash, the Head Sage shifted his vision back to the bed so he could continue watching Prince Zuko sleep. He soon caught Azula’s young terrified wide eyes reflecting the dim light, the pure gold in her eyes almost seemed to be glowing back at him. Fire Sage Hiroto froze for a moment as he realized Azula had witnessed the whole thing. He shifts a bit awkwardly and bows low in her direction.

In an apologetic tone he says, “I am sorry that you had to witness something like this Princess Azula. It is not in our nature to tolerate that type of foolishness. I am sure you can relate. I could not allow this arse to run to Ozai and risk getting both you and your brother killed. I am sure that you have by now realized there is far too much at stake to let Fire Sage Lee continue on in this world. He knew far too much and could not be trusted. He, like others, have forgotten the true purpose of the Fire Sages.” He raised himself from his bow and came over to the other side of the bed and gently touched Zuko’s forehead.

“Is it true?” Azula questioned in a voice that came out much smaller than she intended. Fire Sage Hiroto raised an eyebrow questioningly. Azula cleared the lump of fear from her throat and tried again. She was louder, and this time her questions came out like rapid fire. “Is what you said about Zuko and I true? Has he really changed so much? Is he no longer Zuko? You said that Orochi was cursed and now Zuko is Orochi? So, that must mean Zuko is now a cursed spirit? Has the Fire Nation really turned away from Agni? What does all of this mean?”

The older man sat down heavily on the chair she had vacated beside Zuko’s bed. He sighed and gave her a solemn look. He quietly watched her and Zuko for a few moments, clearly thinking about how to answer her. Azula felt anxious and began to grow nervous at the continued silence between them. She had always been so proud of her control over everything. However, she found herself in unfamiliar territory when her feelings came unchecked and raw. It unnerved her, but it reminded her of Zuko and how she used to be when things were still really good between them. She caught glimpses of happier times in her memories, which had her deciding to just let it be and embrace it. She would resume her perfect control around their father and, in the meantime, help Zuko learn to reign in his emotions. In moments like this, she realized she didn’t have to exert that perfect control and she could experience what it is to feel and be vulnerable. A look of resolve came across Fire Sage Hiroto’s face as he seemed to find the words he wanted to say. He finally began speaking.

“A long time ago, before Agni created the Dragons, Agni and Tui had a child together. This child was named Orochi. He was the first Dragon. A being of Water and Fire. But shortly after his birth, Agni and Tui separated, leaving her brother Agni and their child Orochi while she had fallen in love with La. When the other Great Spirits discovered that Tui and Agni had a child, they were forced to denounce Orochi and abandon him. There was nothing bad about the Spirits having kids. It was the fact that a Brother and Sister had a child of their own that was so forbidden and was frowned upon by the Great Spirits.”

“Orochi was not allowed to be recognized for who he truly was. Instead, he was admonished, abandoned, and branded as a demonic monstrosity who was hated by all spirits. You could imagine the impact this had on the originally bright and warm hearted Orochi. He soon embraced the cold hatred and eventually ended up becoming the very demon they denounced him to be. Even Koh, the Spirit of Death and Evil incarnate wouldn’t stoop to befriend Orochi…” The old Fire Sage looked sad. His elbows were propped on his knees while his forehead was resting against his steepled clawed fingers.

“Orochi came to hate everything that his parents had cherished. He had been cast out of the Spirit World and forsakened to the World of the Living. Our world. Here he would terrorize all of humanity, dragons, the walking whales, and seek to destroy the very fabrics of fate. Orochi truly is a demon. And has been known to be such as soon as he was cast out of the Spirit World. The first child of Agni and Tui. The first demon. Orochi’s existence has only been a cursed one. I believe that Father Agni and Mother Tui had regretted what they did to Orochi. He never deserved to face the consequences for their actions. Except he did. And it ruined him.”

“I suspect that today’s intervention from both Agni and Tui may have been them trying to set Orochi free. Orochi would have continued on like this forever until he was finally destroyed. Agni helped Prince Zuko kill Orochi. Tui helped the prince stay alive, while preventing Orochi from being rejuvenated. Had Zuko just died and Orochi’s heart had touched its body again, Orochi would have come back to life like nothing had ever happened. He had been imprisoned before by having its heart separated from him, but there was no way to destroy his heart. It just continues to keep healing and only makes him extremely angry for torturing him. If you destroyed his body completely even with the heart separated, his heart and his physical body would change into a spirit form. He would then disappear elsewhere until he rejuvenated. At least, that is what happened the last time.”

“However, this time Tui helped Zuko survive by using Orochi’s heart to replace his that was destroyed. I think Orochi saw this as a way to finally be free of his cursed existence. By giving Zuko everything that he was, Orochi was able to move on and will finally be able to rest for eternity; essentially being reincarnated straight into Prince Zuko with his memories erased. And in this, Orochi is reborn as Zuko and vice versa. This will have restored Orochi to his original self and broken his ties to Agni and Tui. He will no longer be their forbidden child doomed to live a cursed existence. Now there is a chance that Prince Zuko, as the new Orochi, will be able to take this opportunity to become what Orochi truly is. A Great Spirit, not a demon.”

Azula tried to process all of what The Head Fire Sage had just told her. Her first thought was it sounded really hokey. She pondered the thought that just a few hours ago she would never have acknowledged the existence of spirits like this. However, after tonight’s events, the ones she witnessed firsthand, she could no longer deny their existence. And there must be a fair amount of truth to what Hiroto had said if he was willing to kill another sage so casually to keep this whole thing a secret. It was still a lot for her to take in all at once. She was also becoming very worried for Zuko. If this Orochi demon took over Zuko’s body, what kind of effect will that have on her brother? So she asked as much.

“How will gaining Orochi’s power and heart and merging with him completely, as you say, change Zuko? Do you think he will be okay knowing that his life and bending is now fueled by a demon?” 

They were fairly simple questions to ask yet not so easy to answer it seemed. Fire Sage Hiroto reached over towards Zuko and shifted his hair behind his now pointy ear. They sat in silence for a while longer but it took less time for him to respond this time.

“Well, his very being has changed. He is now a spirit with a physical body. He will find that while his firebending will be stronger during the day, he doesn’t draw his strength from it. His fire comes from himself, as if he were a mini sun all on his own. This will strengthen the fire of his bending but make it more difficult to control. Sozin’s style will not work for him and he will have to rediscover a different style or form his own to be able to control his bending now. I have a feeling that he will find himself drawn to water as well, but I do not know for sure. At some point he may be able to wield Orochi’s specific flame, the cold white flame you saw earlier. It’d be like how you mastered your azure flame. Other than that, I feel that his very demeanor will change to a degree. There is still the demonic essence in his power and he will have to figure out how to erase that from himself. That is, if he wishes to not be swayed by the demonic instincts now ingrained in the very fabric of his being…”


	2. Training with Li & Lo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zuko finds himself changing in a pleasing way to father and Azula. The relationship of brother and sister heals. Li and Lo attempt to take it to a new level.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for the support and patience so far. This be the complete edited repost of chapter 2. Enjoy.

Azula found that convincing Zuko to dye his hair was a rather easy task. Luckily, no manipulation was needed, which was something she was trying to avoid after the Orochi incident. They merely told Zuko it would better serve them to keep what happened in the garden to themselves for now. He agreed wholeheartedly. Part of this meant no one outside of the small circle of people who witnessed said events could perform the task. Therefore, Azula essentially became Zuko’s personal stylist and began applying black dye to her brother’s hair on a weekly basis.

Over the course of the past few weeks, the siblings have rekindled their relationship into a more amicable one. Azula ignored Ozai’s teachings in her interactions with her brother. Head Sage Hiroto warned her that she needed to exercise caution and not draw her brother’s ire. Zuko would be experiencing a variety of changes in his personality as he learns how to sort out what is Orochi and what is his original self. Ironically, Azula no longer had the desire to berate or control him and she was becoming aware of his true strength; no longer viewing him as weak. His actions during the incident had proven he was anything but. 

Azula kept her vow she made that fateful night in Zuko’s bedroom. She sat down with her brother and began teaching him the best ways to deal with their father. She explained that he needed to be able to display a ruthless streak so Ozai would show him favor. She also taught him calming techniques to prevent his anxiety from flaring up when doing a demonstration for their father. One of the main things she emphasized was that Zuko really needed to significantly improve his firebending skills. It was clear that he struggled with Sozin Style. She told Zuko they needed to search for a proper teacher who would be able to determine which style is best for him and teach him everything about it.

“It’s not that you have no talent, Zuzu. The move you created to counter a fall to the ground is evidence of that. It’s very effective and unexpected. It also has the potential to be lethal. You could use it to easily end someone who wouldn’t know it was coming. You have talent, but you need to find and hone the skills that will best utilize your talent. If you don’t, you are just a huge dumdum, Zuzu. I would rather not see you become the disappointment father thinks you are.”

Azula temporarily held her breath while waiting for her brother to react. She was applying dye to Zuko’s hair for the second straight week and Azula was watching his reflection in her mirror. She found herself unnerved by the lack of reaction in him. His face stayed calm and serious, for an 11-year-old, as he listened to her thoughtfully. She glanced over to the candle that gave them their light tonight. She did not see a single flicker of rage or anger. ‘ _Interesting_ ,’ she thought to herself.

This was one of the major changes that unnerved her. Usually, Zuko’s temper would flare up at her criticism and he’d be beset with uncontrollable anger by now. Azula found herself worrying just how much Zuko’s personality was changing from the Zuzu she was accustomed to. The scene of the ice-cold rage and hate that seeped from the white dragon glaring down at her caused her heart to skip a beat in fear and sent a shiver down her spine. This was exacerbated by the thought of how Zuko and the beast have now merged together as one being. She struggled with how much of Fire Sage Hiroto’s words she should fully believe. Yet, each day that passed, Azula witnessed more and more things that were proving the validity of his words. At this point, she was just hoping that Hiroto wasn’t completely right.

Zuko nodded his understanding as he contemplated her words. He had quickly become accustomed to raptly listening to her advice since the incident. In the first week after, Azula convinced him to get rid of the bastard who called himself a Master and served as a royal firebending instructor. The Master would always gripe about how he was stuck teaching the failure Prince, as opposed to the prodigious Princess. ‘ _TCH!!_ _As if he could keep up with me!’_ Azula thought to herself. 

The Master seemed to only hinder Zuko’s progress. If her brother mastered a new form quicker than anticipated, the Master would claim Zuko was not doing it correctly and forced him to continually repeat the exercise or do some other pointless shit for a month. All because he couldn’t be bothered to change his plans. Plus, this gave him more time to belittle Zuko, which made him feel superior to someone from Sozin’s line. The sheer indignity of it made Azula seriously contemplate stringing him up and having him dragged through the streets of the Caldera. 

As such, she also was certain that this old fool would be completely incapable of teaching Zuko now anyhow. The incident changed his bending in a major way. After Zuko regained his energy, he tested it by running though previously mastered bending forms. He found that his bending seemed subdued compared to the power he was able to wield before the incident. She had suggested they get rid of this old fool before he further besmudges Zuko’s honor with his shitty, subpar teaching methods. He was even more unfit to train Zuko now and his previous methods would most likely get him killed, as she remembers the warning the Head Sage gave her about angering her brother. Not that she wouldn’t like to see him destroy that old worthless sack of skin. Keeping the events of that night and Zuko’s metamorphosis quiet was difficult enough, lest they add this to the fray.

However, later that day, Azula had a huge surprise waiting for her. She expected Zuko to wait for her to finish her training with their father so they could both go and rid themselves of the old Master by manipulating him and playing games. As she was finishing training with her father, the Palace Head of Staff was patiently waiting to speak with Ozai. The old servant bowed to Ozai and waited for permission to speak. When Ozai told him to speak, he began relaying a story about Zuko’s recent actions. Apparently, Zuko summoned his Master to the palace gates and fought him. With only swords. Azula began growing nervous about this new revelation and looked to her father to discern his reaction to the news. Ozai only raised his eyebrow and made a motion with his hand for the servant to continue on. Zuko had fought the old Master with his dual dao swords, pushing him past the gate. Once there, he set the Master on fire and proclaimed he was banished to the colonies.

By this point, Ozai was staring with rapt attention to every syllable that came from the servant’s mouth. He had a contemplative look on his face and Azula was unsure of what he was thinking, so she remained silent during the exchange. Ozai finally broke his silence and asked the servant why Zuko had done so. The servant grew increasingly more nervous and replied that Zuko admonished his old teacher because he was weak and useless, especially if he could be defeated by an eleven-year-old using only dao swords. Zuko had personally deemed the old Master unfit to be anyone’s firebending teacher, let alone instructor to anyone in the royal family. Therefore, he banished the old fool. Needless to say, Ozai was shocked. He stood stock still and silent processing all that he had just heard. After a moment, Azula noticed Ozai smirking with an extremely pleased look in his eyes.

Azula stood on Ozai’s left with a gleeful smile plastered on her face. Zuko had done what she suggested he do with very little pestering and zero manipulation on her part. And he did so in a manner that made their father clearly pleased. She wished he had waited for her though. ‘ _Ah, well_ ,’ she thought, ‘ _another time then_.’ Father had ordered the Head of Staff to find Zuko a worthy firebending instructor. He turned towards Azula and instructed her to work with Zuko and have him do self-study of his forms until a new Master was brought in to take over. 

She bowed her head in acquiescence to her father’s request and took her leave to find Zuko. She located him in the garden watching the turtleducks in the pond. She ran over to him and jumped onto his back to give him a fierce platypus-bear hug. He turned his head sideways to catch a glimpse to see if he was being attacked and realized it was only Azula. “Lala, what are you doing?!” He squeaked out the best he could with his nine-year-old sister crushing his windpipe. She quickly let go and congratulated him on his spectacular actions.

Azula began relaying the exchange between the head servant and their father, being sure to not leave out the bit about their father being exceptionally pleased with Zuko’s actions. She added his instructions about Zuko’s interim training regimen until a new Master is found. While she was talking, she had gotten off Zuko’s back and sat on the edge of the pond beside him. After she had finished speaking, she noticed the huge smile on his face. This was exactly what they both wanted! They were determined to get a head start on his self-study and ran to the palace library to gather all the scrolls on other bending styles they could find. Unfortunately, there were none to be found, so they headed directly to the training arena so Zuko could begin exploring what came naturally.

-?-

During his self-study that was overseen by Azula, he had discovered quite a bit about his unique style and was beginning to find his niche. Oftentimes, Azula found herself awestruck by how fluid his movements actually were. When he implemented new techniques, his movements resembled more of a dance than fighting. When time allowed, Azula and Zuko would often spar so Zuko could experiment with his own style he was creating by paying attention to his instincts, and if he could glean anything during meditation. It did not take long for the next opportunity to earn Ozai’s favor to present itself. Azula was exceptionally proud of Zuko. She was correct in her previous thinking that he would do far better if he were using anything other than Sozin’s style. Zuko’s talent was on par with genius and a person would easily believe he was a prodigy like her if they did not know his history in firebending.

Five days after banishing the old fool of an instructor, a new Master had been found for Zuko. Upon arrival, he was met at the palace gates by Zuko himself. He promptly challenged the new Master to an Agni Kai, which was accepted by the confused instructor. Using only the basics of his new bending style, Zuko defeated the new firebending Master rather quickly. Afterwards, he just stood above the instructor and stared down at him coldly. Zuko ordered him to not even bother entering the palace and to just leave. 

As Azula was sitting at the table eating breakfast with her father, she was listening to him make comments about how weak Zuko was for skipping breakfast to meet his new instructor. He claimed one of royal blood should never show such devotion to an instructor, master or not. They should be honored to teach them, not the other way around. Azula herself was a little confused as to why Zuko had skipped breakfast to welcome the new instructor to the palace, but she was sure he had a good reason. However, she was soon enlightened about his reason for doing so. 

The Head of Staff bowed at the entrance to the dining room and awaited permission to speak. Once granted by Ozai, he began speaking, “Fire Lord Ozai, Prince Zuko greeted the new master at the palace gates and promptly challenged him to an Agni Kai. He swiftly defeated the instructor and ordered him to leave and never return. I will admit that I underestimated Prince Zuko’s firebending abilities based on the reports of his previous master. I will begin searching for more advanced instructors immediately!”

Ozai was clearly beside himself with surprise. He watched Zuko as he entered the dining room and sat down to join them for breakfast. Father had openly expressed his pleasure at Zuko’s initiative as they ate. “It is only right that we weed out the fools who are unfit to teach royals. They need to be shown that their place is not here. Well done. You two will be doing self-studying together until the Head of Staff finds a more appropriate teacher. If none can be found, then I will personally oversee your training myself.” Azula happily gave Zuko a look from the corner of her eye. He was finally beginning to show their father that though Zuko is many things, he is definitely not weak.

Azula remembered the past week fondly as she ran her fingers through her brother’s soft hair with heat, drying the dye thoroughly. Zuko hummed contently as she was stroking his head. Azula startled a bit when she heard a weird rumbling sound come from him but recognized it to be more like the purring of a Lion-dog.

“Father has been very pleased with you as of late, by the way. I am sure you noticed, especially during breakfast the morning you fought and denied the new teacher from entering the palace gates. That was brilliant! Using your firebending this time, as opposed to your swords, made it even better than the last one. You have talent, Zuzu. For now, you will probably have to keep sending teachers away until you find one whose bending will actually be useful for you. Father won’t be happy with your lack of ability with Sozin’s Style but that is but a small hurdle we will have to just deal with. At least until you are able to develop your own style enough that father is unable to deny its usefulness. Through sheer, overwhelming power, you will be able to change father’s mind about you.”

“Thank you, Lala.” Zuko looked back at her fondly through the mirror. His face showing signs of his usual soft caring self. Azula couldn’t bring herself to hate her brother for it. Rather she found herself looking back at him in the same manner. Zuko was making her soft. Azula isn’t so sure about how she feels about that, but she knew this is how they should be as brother and sister. With his hair done, Zuko got up from the chair in front of her mirror and led Azula to sit down in his place. This was their routine. Azula would help him dye his hair and he would comb her’s, like their Mother used to do, before they went to sleep. Azula sat back and handed her favorite brush over her shoulder to Zuko. He set out to untangling her hair before brushing it with a delicate attention to detail.

-?-

Ozai sat at his desk thinking about what to do with the boy. For a long time, he believed him useless and weak. Too like his mother. Unfit to be heir. Azula is by far the best heir he could have. She was a very useful tool he was honing to have undying loyalty to him and him only. At first, he had been constantly trying to pit his children against each other. Drive a rift between them so that Azula didn’t become soft and weak. But now? Oh, now Zuko was proving himself to be quite worthy. From the reports he had been receiving, the two have been spending more time together in the past couple weeks. At first Ozai was going to snuff this spark before it ignited, but things didn’t turn out like he thought they would.

He used to receive reports about how Azula would torment the boy, much to Ozai’s approval. She’d only play games with him because she was bored. But now they seem to be actively playing together and Zuko was changing. He was also becoming worthy of being a useful tool. Ozai was quite surprised at the sudden ruthless streak Zuko was showing. It made him think that Azula had started using their time together to morph Zuko into something more devious.

“I should talk with the girl and see what she thinks of the boy. She is with him more often and may have found something worthwhile in him. If she has, excellent! If she finds it worthwhile to teach him the things that I have taught her, it would be even better. I have forged her into my best tool. I inspired things in her that make her even more skilled than myself. As such, I should wait and see how things go. But what to do with the two of them? More and more of my time is being taken up and I am unable to spend much time on training Azula… While they seem to do much better self-studying than being under any worthless teacher, the next two years will be too long and wasted if I don’t do something with them…”

A knock came from his study’s door and Ozai commanded them to enter. The weird old man, which he only knew as the Head of Staff, bowed his way into the study with the proper respectfulness. This man has always been Head of Staff/ head servant for as long as Ozai could remember. He vaguely recalled being as young as the girl when he first tried to find out this ancient man’s name. But alas, no one ever knew. Head servant may have very well been his real name. Ozai ordered him to state why he was here so late at night. Part of him was curious to know if there were any new occurrences involving the boy.

“We have received a message from Li and Lo. They wish to resume their training of Princess Azula. They heard about Prince Zuko’s latest achievements and have offered to train him alongside Princess Azula as well.” The servant’s report was short and straight to the point. Just the way he liked it. It also just so happened to be exactly the news he wanted to hear as it would solve his current predicament.

“Hmm… Perfect. Have the servants pack the Prince and Princess’ belongings for a long-term stay. They will be traveling to the old summer house where they will stay and train with Li and Lo for the next two years. Inform them they leave in two days' time.”

Ozai sat back as the ancient man bowed and left to fulfill his request and whatever other duties he did around the palace. The servant quietly went about his work without a second more to even profess his fealty, which was something Ozai would only tolerate from this man. The Head of Staff has likely been here doing his job since before his foolish older brother’s birth. Possibly even longer. Ozai was quite curious about the head servant, but something about him left the Fire Lord unnerved and prompted a warning from the depths of his mind to be very cautious around him. Ozai did not dare try anything with the head servant because of that unnerving feeling he got from him. It helped that the ancient man never gave Ozai a tangible reason to have any issue with him. He always got his work done efficiently, effectively, and he rarely bothered Ozai with things unless they were of the utmost importance. Now, if only the rest of the fools in the palace could learn that.

To say Ozai was pleased is an understatement. The Head of Staff just so happened to hand Ozai the solution to the predicament he was trying to sort out. Now the boy and girl would be on their way to Ember Island to train together under his own old mentors, Li and Lo. In the perfect scenario, not only would their bending progress substantially, but Azula would also be able to forge Zuko into an even more useful tool for Ozai to have at his disposal. _‘One can only hope,’_ he thought to himself.

“Well, now that is taken care of, it will be interesting to see how much progress those two will make over the next two years.”

-?- 

Azula walked into her room and dumped her belongings she was carrying onto the floor inside the family summer home on Ember Island. She had to carry her own bags of clothing, as they were not greeted with servants who would do it. The rest of her belongings will be shipped to her at a later time. Ozai had suddenly sent her and Zuko to Ember Island, which concerned her slightly. At first, she suspected he was sending them away to get them out of his way. Though she was quite confused as to why. Ozai was pleased with Zuko and her as of late, due in large part to Zuko’s personality change. It was no surprise that Father contributed Zuko’s change to Azula’s influence. He even told her to continue forging Zuko into a more useful tool; teach him the things Ozai taught her to make Zuko more worthy.

Much of what had happened recently was pointing in the right direction, but Azula could not shake the doubt and growing suspicion that something was amiss here. Maybe Father somehow found out about the epiphany that allowed her to break free from his control. Or he was displeased with the bond she was reforming with Zuko. Perhaps he merely lost interest and believed them to be useless, thereby tossing them aside in disgust. The ferry ride to the island only served to give Azula time to nearly drive herself insane with worry and doubt. She was constantly pestering Zuko and never left his side. His presence served as a welcome distraction and helped calm her nerves. 

During the ferry ride, there was a raging storm at sea just before they reached Ember Island. Unfortunately for Azula, the storm reminded her about the night Orochi attacked and nearly killed Zuko instead of killing her. She knew she would eventually have nightmares from that night, but she didn’t think it would occur during her waking hours as well. She forced Zuko to sleep with her that night, and she noticed how calm Zuko seemed in the storm. She found it strange that it wasn’t a calm stemming from lack of fear, rather it was as if he were more alive and strengthened by the storm. His calm demeanor soothed her enough that she had fallen asleep with her head in his lap that allowed her to rest peacefully, all while Zuko meditated on the storm. She slept through the rest of the storm.

The next morning, she had woken up to the sound Li and Lo entering her room on the ship. At the sight of them, all of her previous worries and suspicion instantly left her. Their father had sent her and Zuko to Ember Island to train with these two crazy old bats! This was definitely a good sign! This meant Ozai thought well enough of Zuko that he was also fit to train under Li and Lo. The old sisters then explained the details surrounding their trip to Ember Island; they would be staying at the family’s summer home, with only Li, Lo, and one servant, and they were to complete two years of training under the sisters.

Azula plopped down on the edge of her bed with a mentally exhausted sigh and stared at the view of the ocean through her window. As she sat there admiring the view, she heard a noise in the next room. She recalled that her mother’s room was next to hers. She wondered if Ozai had been wrong about Ursa, as he had with Zuko. One night, only months ago, Fire Lord Azulon mysteriously passed away in the middle of the night. The odd thing was that their Mother had vanished the same night. Ozai told them that she didn’t love them and had left them. As such, she was told to forget about Ursa and she was better off presuming her to be dead. Part of her still believed Ozai, considering everything she knew he had done to turn her into a monster. Azula was always their father’s favorite, while Zuko was their mother’s. That was how it always was. It still hurt, though, when she remembered Ursa calling her a monster. All Azula had done was told Zuzu that Ozai was going to kill him. She heard grandfather order father to do it! She wasn’t lying. Honestly though, Azula couldn’t blame her for that assessment. She had indeed been turning into a monster.

This made her hate Ozai all the more. He was the one who manipulated her into a monster in the first place. He was surely the reason mother had left. Did Ursa really not love her children she left behind? Azula had no clue, but she still missed her. Even more so now, when they were in the house of the few happy memories she had as a family. Another noise came from their mother’s room; a thump and a gentle muffled sound. Her breath caught in her throat as noise kept coming from that room. There was clearly someone in there. A faint ray of hope took root within Azula that maybe their mother had actually been hiding here all this time. The feeling was swiftly replaced with anger as she thought it more likely the servant was trying to take claim to the room.

She sprinted to the door of her mother’s room, while attempting to quash the hope within, and threw it open to see what was going on. When she looked inside, she saw Zuko unpacking his clothes and belongings into the empty drawer, while carefully consolidating mother’s clothes into a single dresser. He looked up slowly, surprised from someone barging into the room, and saw the look on her face, a look of utterly destroyed hope. He promptly stopped what he was doing and walked over to her. Still in the doorway, she just could not force her feet to cross the threshold into her mother's room. 

“I am sorry Lala. I miss her too…” Zuko wrapped his arms around Azula and hugged her tightly. Not giving anyone a chance to see her moment of weakness where a tear slid down her cheek. Zuko stood there embracing his little sister in silence to give her as long as she needed. Azula let herself cry into his warm chest and returned the hug. After some time has passed, Zuko leans back so he can gently wipe the tears from her cheeks. “It’s okay. I’m sorry for going into her room. My room is much further away and I wanted to remain as close to you as possible. I was avoiding the other rooms on this side, especially father’s and uncle’s. I thought mother’s room would be good, but if it bothers you, I will move my things back to my room if you like.”

Azula firmly shook her head and hugged Zuko again, calming herself by breathing in his comforting scent. Zuko had become her replacement for her mother. He had always given her unconditional love and made her feel safe and at home regardless of where they were. She quietly grabbed his hand and led him to her room. She enlisted his help to carry her stuff to their mother’s room. Zuko managed to get most of her belongings, leaving Azula with a free hand to close the door to her room behind them. Azula decided in her mind that they would just share a room. However, Zuko did not get her meaning by moving her stuff into the room. When he started taking his stuff out of a drawer Azula had to stop him and spoke up with her voice still weak.

“No. I want to share this room with you. This room is plenty big for the both of us and I would rather we not be separated. We have no guards here, so it’d be best if we are together to take care of any assanation attempts or attacks together. So, we will split the drawers and share the room and bed. It’ll save us from having to go to the other’s room anyways.” Azula ended authoritatively. Azula had been having nightmares of Orochi’s attack, leading to her lashing out in her sleep and setting things on fire like she used to during thunderstorms. Zuko resumed his habit of coming to her room and calming her back to sleep.

If Zuko was going to stay in their Mother’s room so he was close to her, then she’d come the rest of the way and share the room with him. Then he would be readily available when she had nightmares. Not to mention, it really would be better this way in case of an attack. Zuko has a sixth sense for these things and knew when danger and such threats were afoot. The two of them being together like this allowed them to better keep an eye on and protect one another.

They spent the rest of the morning unpacking their belongings and settling into their mother’s room. It was time for lunch when they had finally finished. Li and Lo had come looking for them with tea and sandwiches. When they found them, they were snuggled with each other on the balcony admiring the view of the ocean. Azula froze when she saw them step onto the balcony. They both chortled together when they saw the look on Azula’s face, like she had been caught doing something bad.

“There’s no need for you to separate yourselves my dear Prince and Princess.” Li held up a hand for Azula to stop from getting up. She was handing them some cups of sweet tea.

“Indeed. We actually believe that such closeness and unity of pairs, twins, and siblings can actually be a very good thing.” Lo smiled fondly while passing around the sandwiches.

“Mhmm. We were actually going to suggest the two of you share a room. We encourage you two to strengthen your bonds with each other and to learn to depend on each other.”

“Only in keeping yourselves completely open and unguarded to each other are you able to strengthen, defend, and further each other to even greater heights.”

The old sisters continued to talk back and forth, switching off from sentence to sentence and continuing each other’s thoughts seamlessly. Zuko and Azula were both thoroughly bewildered as their heads swiveled back and forth between the sisters as they took turns speaking. Little did they know, their father would be bewildered in the future when Azula and Zuko return doing the same thing.

“For today, take your time to get situated with your new home for the next two years.”

“Tomorrow, go out into the town and get yourselves familiar with the island.”

“Go shopping together for your food and groceries.”

“Then start your cooking lessons with your servant.”

“Until you two are adequate at cooking and taking care of yourselves, the servant will stay with you.”

“But after that, she will leave and the two of you will be taking care of each other.”

“Cooking together, cleaning together, learning together, fighting together, and going everywhere together.”

Li and Lo smile at each other before speaking in unison. Their voices merging and becoming one.

“We will help you two train your bending and make you the greatest pair of benders to walk the planet. Your teamwork will be unparalleled, and when you are faced with an army on your own, together you will be able to take them down with ease.”

-?-

The first two weeks of their training were rather interesting. Li and Lo were helping the servant teach them how to cook, clean, do laundry, and fix their clothes. All the things that servants were meant to do. Azula commented more than once that she was royalty and should not be forced to do servant’s work. The old servant remained politely silent while Li and Lo would just shake their heads. This continued on for a few days until Zuko pulled Azula to the side for a talk.

“Look Lala. I get you don’t like learning to do such menial tasks, but you need to stop with your comments. They are getting out of hand and cruel. I already saw the servant break down and cry when she thought no one was looking. It’s not right for you to treat her like that.”

Azula crossed her arms and harrumphed like the spoiled brat she is. She really could not care less about the troubles of a lowly peasant. This was what they were paid to do. Why should the servant get paid to do a job Azula had to do herself anyways? Azula made these thoughts known to her brother who just shook his head with a knowing smile. He placed his hands on either side of her face and gently turned her head towards him as he leaned in SUPER close. Their noses and foreheads were firmly touching and the sudden closeness surprised Azula. However, she could not find it in herself to pull away. Instead she just looked straight into his golden eyes with her own.

“You don’t want to be like Father, Lala. Ruling with fear may be effective in controlling people, but it will only get you so far. You’d have to continue to instill that fear, because the moment your subjects no longer fear you, you are unable to trust them. At that point, they are likely to hate you and may already be working against you. Instead, you must rule justly and kindly. Fear has its place, just enough to inspire respect and no more. You have to let your people know that you are not a pushover and will do what is necessary to maintain order. This way your subjects will care for you and willingly choose to serve you of their own accord. When they swear their loyalty to you in this manner, that is when you know you can trust them. They are following you because they want to, not because you force them to. You always used to tease me about being too soft-hearted like Mother, but she was correct in the things she taught me.”

Azula mulled this over. Zuko had a fair point. Whether you instill too much fear or ease up on it, people will become untrustworthy. Zuko is right about a handful of things that conflict with father’s philosophy. She began contemplating on the benefits of Zuko’s method; allowing people to choose to swear servitude because they want to and how that would lead to deeper roots of unwavering loyalty to form within one’s subjects. Azula couldn’t refute its usefulness, and it would certainly promote a healthy amount of respect on both ends. She even thought of the perfect example to support this claim. She thought about how her Uncle Iroh was when he was still a general. So many people were ultimately loyal in supporting him and not once did he resort to fear mongering. Not like their treacherous father. Azula took Zuko’s words to heart and decided that she should apologize to the servant for her unjust cruelty.

“And as far as being taught servant’s work… These are actually good skills to learn. Especially when we live in a world at war. We might not always have someone to do these tasks for us. We very well may be forced to enter into war ourselves and perform covert missions. We won’t be able to bring servants with us because they’d weigh us down. Not to mention the less people you have in a covert mission, the better the chance of success. In terms of survival, we need to learn these things. Cooking, laundry, mending clothes, and every other skill we are learning right now are essential tasks that will need to be performed if we are ever in a real world situation. This will allow us to take care of ourselves and not feel absolutely useless if we end up stranded. We will not have to worry about sabotage or being poisoned either if we are making our own meals! It takes the advantage away from anyone who would try to harm us in that manner.”

Azula’s first impulse was to ask who would dare do something like that, but she quickly realized that Zuko was right once again. They were well aware of the assassination attempts and people who would gladly wish them out of the way. Even if their own father decided they were useless to him, he might just decide to get rid of them permanently instead of sending them somewhere out of sight. That, combined with the fact that they would eventually have to take on active roles in the war. She found she was unable to disagree that they needed to learn how to do these things. She nodded and gave her brother a quick hug before setting off to find the servant so she could apologize to her. She decided to dedicate herself to learning all of these things and master them as she did with everything else.

-?-

Li and Lo were rather worried about how the royal siblings would take to this part of their training. Would they be too rotten and spoiled to learn the things they had to teach them? Their fears were alleviated when they hid and eavesdropped on Zuko’s talk with Azula. They had always heard about how kind and loving the Prince was; he really was so much like Ursa. Azula, on the other hand, was known to be cold, calculating, and cruel. Just like Ozai. The sisters were pleasantly surprised to hear the borderline treasonous words coming from Zuko’s mouth. And even more so that Azula silently agreed with him and seemed to really take his words to heart.

Truthfully, they were in complete agreement with Zuko about Fire Lord Ozai. This was the primary reason they constantly pestered him to let them train Azula. They worried Ozai’s influence would turn her into a monster that would irrevocably damage her mind. Forge her into a tool used for killing; only living a life devoid of love and joy. News of Prince Zuko’s ruthless streak also caused them a bit of concern. Watching them now though, they could see Zuko still had all of his heart. Whether the stories are true or not, the boy’s heart lay where it should.

Li and Lo looked to each other with a smile when Azula walked away to apologize to the servant. Only time would tell what she took from this conversation. There were many areas where Zuko and Azula were stronger than the other in. Strengths of Azula’s that Zuko would benefit from learning, and vice versa. By two years’ end, Li and Lo planned to make these two siblings in perfect sync with each other. Zuko will learn Azula’s control, and Azula will learn empathy and how to treat others with kindness from Zuko. It is what they both need. Right now, they were two halves that worked well with each other, but they would be even better if they became a whole and found balance within one another. It would serve to make them stronger, so they would be capable of so much more alone or working together.

And so it went. The first month on Ember Island, Li and Lo had them learn to do everything together. They had Azula and Zuko cook, clean, do laundry, shop, sleep, work out, learn, dance, bathe, talk, and think; never alone, always together. After the first month passed, they had completed learning all of the daily tasks. Azula was very efficient and good with recipes, while Zuko was artful and had a calm patience when cooking and making tea. A month with Azula’s perfectionism aided both into becoming decent cooks. This allowed Li and Lo to dismiss the servant back to the capital so they were able to dive into their more unorthodox teaching methods. This prevented interference so the siblings were able to become closer with each other, allowing for them to do things that may be frowned upon as siblings.

Unhindered, Li and Lo brought in a couple of their friends for other types of lessons. They taught the pair martial arts so that they would still be able to properly fight without their bending. Azula took up the sword after they convinced Master Piandao to come and help train them. Their friend Izumi taught the two how to dance and play music while her twin, Izume, taught them everything about the Fire Nation’s medical treatments and medicines. At first, they were confused by why they were being taught all of these things when they should be training their firebending, but they did so without griping and settled into a routine. Li and Lo were very pleased when they found their students taking the time to start new things together. They weren’t sure which child came up with the idea, but they began working on their flexibility by learning yoga techniques. They went to spas together at the end of their days. Then they began learning acrobatic movements and incorporating them into their fighting styles.

Slowly, but surely, the siblings were absorbing everything they were being taught and molded all of their dancing, martial arts, swordsmanship, and acrobatics into their base techniques. Their free time was taken up by sparring and self-study of their firebending. They experimented often with incorporating their new skills into their firebending. The sisters noticed their style was moving further and further away from Sozin Style into something far more beautiful and wondrous.

-?-

On this particular morning, Azula woke up a bit earlier than usual. It was about an hour before dawn when her eyes opened. Her head was resting on Zuko and she was immediately entranced with the slow rise and fall of his warm chest. Her right arm was tucked under Zuko’s pillow and her left arm and leg were draped over half of his body. Still leaving the other half of him uncovered enough to catch the breeze coming through the open balcony door. Their light bed sheets had been shoved down to their knees, while Azula’s robe was nowhere to be seen, most likely fallen off the side of the bed. Zuko only ever slept in a pair of trousers, and Azula normally wore a silk robe. She most certainly was not complaining. If anything, Azula found herself exceedingly comfortable. However, she now fully understood why firebender couples usually had separate rooms.

They both produced excessive amounts of heat causing them to become sweaty and quite gross feeling. As her and Zuko were now. She didn’t mind though. Instead, Azula dreamily wondered if this is what it would be like if she were married to Zuko. It occurred to her that finding a decent husband that was actually a good match might not be an easy feat. If she was honest with herself, her brother was the best option she had. Sure, people may look down on siblings marrying, but it’s not like it would be the first time that has happened. It’d be easy to quash any unrest among the nobles and peasants. Father’s teachings may still have their uses. Besides, it’s not like Zuko was actually her brother anymore. After the night Orochi attacked, it became more like Zuko had been adopted into the family. This opened up the possibility for Azula to actually be able to marry her Zuzu.

Azula lay there silently scheming ways to make this become reality. Her head lay on Zuko’s chest and she was contentedly humming a soft tune while tracing the scar over his heart with her fingertip. Dawn was fully upon them when Azula realized that the rising sun wasn’t waking Zuko up. He was still an early riser, but he no longer rose with the sun like most firebenders. The closer it got to a full moon, the more difficulties he had both falling asleep and staying asleep. Azula contemplated waking Zuko up or continuing her honeymoon daydream. A smile spread across her face as she came up with a good compromise.

She sat up from her position and reached up to give Zuko a kiss. Her first kiss. She berated herself for tricking Mai and Zuko into kissing. She regretted not being able to be Zuko’s first kiss, but she was happy that he was her first. Zuko didn’t stir at the light peck she gave him, so she leaned back in and started kissing him again and again until he started to stir. When he moved his arm to wipe the sleep from his eyes, Azula settled for giving him a tight hug and began dragging him to an upright position in their bed.

“Come on, Dumdum. It’s dawn. Time to wake up, rinse off, and do our morning training before making breakfast. Then we have to run into town and stock up on supplies before the hurricane makes landfall.”

Hurricane season was nearly over and they had gotten lucky this year. So far, things had been smooth sailing with only a few bad storms. It seemed they might actually get through this year without a single hurricane. That was until the warning came last week. Master Piandao and the sisters Izumi and Izume all got on ships to go back to their home islands the day the warning came. They were all rather important people and had to go to their domains and oversee the preparations before it made landfall. Zuko and Azula had finished reinforcing their home yesterday and just needed to go to town so they could grab supplies to last them at least a week. This hurricane was predicted to be the worst they had since Kyoshi brought her damned storm around 500 years ago, successfully wiping out half the Fire Nation with it. In preparation for the worst, Li and Lo gave their students plenty of things to do in case they were forced to stay inside for a period of time. 

Zuko groggily sat up and let Azula guide him by the hand to the wash tub they set up every night before going to bed. They had been doing this regularly for nearly three months. Azula quickly dropped Zuko’s pants and led him into the tub so she could wash and dry him off before switching places. Zuko always manages to not be fully awake until they are both dressed and in the courtyard, doing their morning stretches and workout. It seemed to help him by passing the whole time of them bathing each other while in a daze. As much as Azula knew that he loved her, he was far less willing to view her as a woman or potential partner than she would like.

Their morning routine consisted of doing their warm-ups and calisthenic stretches. This was followed by their physical training enforced by Master Piandao. Something about their bodies needing to be in the best shape possible so they are able to master themselves and properly defend themselves when they can’t bend. This also turned out to make their bending stronger and increase their endurance. They would then run along the beach until they did their hand-to-hand, sword, and firebending sparring. These were mostly refreshers to clear and focus their minds. This first part of their training lasted around two hours each morning.

They would then move on to bending exercises by experimenting and developing different moves and styles. Together, they focused on creating Zuko’s new style. It quickly became clear that Zuko’s bending was catching up to Azula’s when using moves from the style he was creating for himself. Azula was also able to pick things up from his style effectively as well. 

Their morning spar was Zuko’s style versus Sozin’s Style. Azula had already honed and mastered everything of Sozin’s Style she had learned so far, so it served as a good test for Zuko’s new style. Their experimentation led to them learning and creating what Zuko dubbed Wave Style Firebending. Zuko was like a prodigy when he used his Wave Style, which Azula was learning, but she was much weaker in. She was still best at Sozin’s Style. When they both used their preferred style, it always ended with Azula winning. Zuko was still playing catch up to her, but in due time they would be equals. There is a chance that this style existed beforehand, or is still practiced, but they were unable to find any records on any other bending style aside from Sozin’s, and no one would ever admit to using any other style. Sozin’s decree made sure of that. Regardless of whether it existed previously or not, it was being used and would continue to be as long as Zuko remained a firebender.

After their training, they would cool down and finish with deep stretches. This would be another two to three hours after the first part of their routine. This is when they would stop, wash up, and begin cooking breakfast. On most days, they would settle in to study until Li and Lo arrived around midday. All of them would typically eat lunch together, but today Li and Lo were staying bunkered in their home. Azula and Zuko needed to go into town and grab supplies before the hurricane hit.

-?-

It was a bit after midday when Azula and Zuko were returning home after buying supplies. Zuko had been very careful schooling his emotions to prevent any incidents. Since that night with the demon, Zuko had felt the presence of the beast within him. It was not necessarily dormant either. Rather, he was the beast and felt these impulses that he never had before. It was all too easy for him to be cruel. He only needed to give in to his feelings when people pissed him off. The end would result in bloodshed with permanent aftereffects if they managed to survive. Zuko realized his luck with keeping himself in check was about to run out.

Some older boys in their late teens were leering at Azula and had the audacity to approach them and make passes at her. They were rambling on that she should come with them. They’d protect her and show her a good time. Zuko could feel his temper rising and stared at them with a look of disgust. Noticing this could turn bad very quickly, he decided to let Azula handle them as he wanted to avoid giving in to his impulsive side, though he did nothing to hide his snarls.

However, his control instantly snapped when the teens said they’d love to show Azula what it truly means to be a woman. Azula was too shocked and disgusted to respond and she looked frozen like she didn’t even know how to react. Zuko quickly contemplated whether he should give them a warning to back off, but he knew this type. Fools, who had no filter and cared not for repercussions. He could sense this and it made his blood boil and revolted against remaining calm. These punks would only respond with a taunt asking Zuko what he was going to do about it. They had their warning from his earlier snarls, the way Lala and himself clearly expressed they wanted nothing to do with them, and it wasn’t his fault if they were unaware they were about to mess with the Fire Nation’s Prince and Princess.

That they would dare still proceed with this transgression was enough for Zuko to say, “Fine. I guess you fuckers are worthy enough for me to become a demon.” He quickly stepped in front of Azula and searing blades took shape and blazed out of his hands. His arms were drawn back and crossed at his shoulders before he struck out at the four teens. One blade of fire slashed through their stomachs while the other seared its way through their bone and flesh of their hips. They instantly collapsed to the ground castrated with their charred guts spilling out of their stomachs, yet their wounds were instantly cauterized; at least there was no bleeding this time. They were still on fire when Zuko grabbed Azula’s hand and dragged her away, leaving the worthless bastards there to die.

Zuko’s heart felt like war drums were thundering in his chest, beating much faster than it had in awhile. His rage would not recede and his perception of time warped as it seemed like he made the half hour trek back to the house in seconds. Words and reason could not reach him. Azula’s hand on his cheek did not faze him. He had one thought in his mind. Drop the supplies at home, then head to the beach and let loose…

-?-

Azula was worried when Zuko stormed off to the beach. This was nothing like his usual foolish rage. This was a cold-blooded, looking-for-someone-to-kill rage. Azula followed him, but remained hidden a ways back so she would not get in his way. She had a feeling that she wouldn’t be able to reach him and pull him out of this rage. Instead, she might end up a casualty. That would only make him hate himself for hurting her. She did not want to put him through that, but when she saw a mob of twenty men storm down the beach towards him, she almost changed her mind.

The hurricane was about to make landfall on Ember Island. The wind was howling something fierce. Azula noticed the four bastards they had the run-in with on their way home. They were being hauled around on a cart pulled by an ostrich-horse. They were clutching the sides of the cart and screaming incoherently while pointing at Zuko as he stood by the surf. The waves grew stronger and stronger with each passing moment. The twenty or so men that had arrived looked to be brothers, friends, brothers of the friends and friends of the brothers. Their ages ranged from seventeen to mid-twenties. The mob began charging Zuko with a mix of swords and fire.

Zuko’s back was to Azula as he was looking out at the waves, seemingly oblivious of the oncoming fight. Azula was about to scream out for him to watch out when he suddenly swayed and struck his fingers out towards the center of the mob. Most of them dodged out of the way, thinking he was aiming for them. However, the sickeningly delightful truth unfolded as Zuko’s strike of pure cold white lightning split at the center of the mob into eight heads that converged on the unguarded bastards from earlier. In less than a second, two of the mob guys stood with gaping holes in their chests where the lightning shot straight through them. They dropped to the ground, dead in an instant. Then, Orochi’s eight heads swiftly brought death to the four bastards in the cart in one smooth strike. The remaining eighteen men looked back to the charred corpses of the friends, as their remains dissipated into ash on the wind. The ostrich-horses reared up and bolted back to town, toppling the four guys out of the cart as they turned to ash before even hitting the ground.

Azula went through multiple phases between “HOLY FROSTED SHIT IN KOH’S BASKET!!!” to freaking out that Zuko was giving into his demonic urges; realizing his lightning strike reminded her of the night Orochi attacked, to “Did Zuzu just expertly strike with lightning without any charge up?”; then finally, to realizing Zuko wasn’t anywhere close to being done. She had fallen onto her rump in the wet sand at this point when she saw Zuko jump in a lightning charged arching leap where he rained down fire from four meters in the air. He continued his assault all the way, landing in the middle of the mob while they scrambled to react. Screams of pain rang out, carried away on the wind. Some of the men were instantly set ablaze and began running into the water only to find it didn’t put out the fire. Instead, Zuko’s silvery white fire froze the oncoming waves as they were about to reach the bastards. The oldest man, the presumed leader of the mob, merely slumped to his knees as he turned to ash and watched in horror as eleven-year-old Zuko butchered the man’s friends and brothers.

Zuko used his bending to form a huge whirlpool of white fiery waves that surrounded the entire mob. He effectively trapped them as he began meticulously decapitating them and tearing their hearts out one by one before they turned into ash. The scene was horrifying and Azula wanted to scream her head off, but a sense of pride for her brother overwhelmed her and kept her silent. The ring of white fire seared the sand into glass and was promptly shattered. The screams of the dying rang out into the stormy afternoon and drew a large gathering of townsfolk to spectate the morbid scene. Azula recognized some as people always being griping about the young troublemakers. These spectators had also witnessed the initial altercation with the original four bastards.

Azula saw the abject fear that rooted them in place as they witnessed Zuko obliterate the bastards into ash and a rain of blood, all while surrounded by the cold heartless silvery white flames. She had no doubt that word of this would reach her father. If anything, she hoped that what happened here would. That way, when they return to the capital, father will welcome them back proudly. Such a display of overwhelming strength and cruelty would earn Zuko a powerful position beside her when she became Fire Lord.

Zuko let out a deafening roar of a dragon that mingled with an exceptionally loud clap of thunder. His flames swirled outwards as he raised his rage to the heavens. The crowd that witnessed today’s events ran for their lives, afraid that they might be next if they loitered too long. After everything had calmed down at the end of the hurricane, Azula would look back and be forever thankful that they had all run away at that time. Zuko’s roar had continued on for a few minutes as his fire swirled around him. Growing into a ginormous firestorm, Zuko started dancing in the center. It was like he had given into his feelings and relinquished control of his body to them in an attempt to burn off the rest of his rage so he could be calm again.

The dance progressed for hours on end. Azula found herself drenched in rain but she did not give a damn. She was fully entranced with the story he was telling. At least that’s what she thought it was. A story told through dance, like something the barbaric water tribe peasants would do. As he did this, his fire kept on growing and moving along with him, eventually taking the form of a dancing dragon of flames. The afternoon shifted into the evening. Now there were four dragons of flames intertwined around Zuko in his entranced dance. She noted new techniques were being discovered. Azula struggled to pay attention to the moves so she could help Zuko remember them later instead. She kept finding herself mesmerized by the amazing spectacle before her. There was a white flame dragon, an azure flame dragon, a regular red and orange flame dragon and a golden/rainbow flame dragon all dancing around him.

It seemed like Zuko’s dance was finally drawing to a close as he seemed to release his fire but then his dance took a change and the impossible occurred. It took a while, but Azula remembered how Orochi was an eight-headed dragon that night and had attacked with spears of ice set aflame. The four dragons of different kinds of fires, some of which she had no idea about. Especially the golden rainbow fire. But when the waves started dancing and moving to Zuko’s movements, Azula realized that she would see all of Orochi’s heads as the full moon illuminated the night from overhead. Time ticked on to the point Azula saw four more dragons of water form and dance alongside with their fire counterparts. Water, fog, ice, and a silvery glowing water made up the other four dragons.

As each dragon came to life in Zuko’s graceful and beautiful dance, the hurricane had gotten stronger and stronger. By the point that all eight dragons were dancing along with Zuko, the eye of the hurricane had stretched for miles out across the ocean to where she could barely see it at the ends of the horizon. Orochi is like the storm. A mix of water and fire. Four heads of fire and four heads of water. His rage fueled the hurricane, and Azula would cringe when she heard about the damage reports that spread throughout the entire Fire Nation and tore apart some of the colonies.

By the time it reached midnight, Zuko brought his dance to an end, his dragons spread outwards to eight points of the hurricane and dissipated the storm all at once. The sky cleared and the night became calm and peaceful. The silence was deafening, except for the gentle lapping of waves and a soft breeze. Zuko groaned and collapsed on the beach. Now that everything was over, Azula ran over to her brother and clutched him to her chest. She was worried if he was okay. She checked all of his vitals and realized he had only passed out and was now asleep. 

Her stomach growled as she dragged Zuko back to the house and washed him before laying him back down in the bed. She climbed in and lay there next to him, playing with his hair that grew down to his butt and turned silvery white again. She was starving, and no doubt so was Zuko. But Azula was exhausted from witnessing the power of the great spirit or demon Zuko has become. She pulls the sheets back over them as she snuggles against her brother, playing with his soft hair.

“I am going to have to cut your hair and dye it black again Zuzu… Thank you…”


	3. Returning "Home"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After 4 years tucked away on Ember Island, Ozai's heirs finally return. To the father, his children are the best capable tools he could ask for. To the world, the siblings are a terrifying prostpect of what is to come. To the truth, Azula and Zuko are loving siblings who plan to right the wrongs of their family by the best way they know how.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Current formatting rules for AO3:  
> “Blablabla...yady yada...dialog”  
> ‘Are for active thoughts such as: Did father really intend to do that?’  
> *Are to be used for flashbacks*  
> {\ To be used for special images that are shared? /}

**4 years later:**

Ozai sat in his office, having just finished his paperwork. He previously appointed a group of nobles to oversee lower-level domestic issues in order to free up some of his time. This left him with less than an hour of paperwork every few days, giving him more time to attend the increasingly frequent war meetings. The war was taking a bad turn the last two years and much of his time was spent in meetings planning. This turn of events caused him to force an extra two years training on the Prince and Princess on Ember Island. Overall, he was satisfied with the way things had turned out.

Extending the length of their training was seemingly for the best. While he never received reports about Azula's achievements, he received plenty about Zuko’s. It seemed every achievement the boy had was a direct result of Azula’s influence on him. Ozai smirked as he recalled the reports detailing the stream of violence and deaths that had occurred over the last four years. It seemed idiots were obsessed with hitting on Azula in such foul ways, the boy had taken to burning them alive for their disrespect.

Ozai noted that had these incidents occurred in his presence, the offenses were enough that he would have set flame to the entire family. When it involved a lesser offense, the boy's punishment would be relatively lighter. Ozai would have intervened and doled out a harsher punishment to those involved, if not for Azula’s letters detailing the punishment Zuko performed on the spot.

Her letters always said that they considered the matter over with and the most important thing was that Zuko has taken to willingly handing out the punishments. And that he did so in a cruel manner. Ozai could hardly disagree, so he let it slide. He'd also heard tales of the significant improvement in their bending. He even had masters requesting an audience with the Prince and Princess to learn what they discovered.

Ozai initially only planned on having them train there for two years, but as their progress reports flowed in, and with the war taking all of his time, he decided to let them stay until Li and Lo fully completed their training. Four years since they left the palace. The boy should be about fifteen, and the girl about thirteen. He still wouldn't have time to train with them when they return, but when Li and Lo said that they had no more they could teach them. Luckily, his foolish brother offered to oversee their advanced training.

His brother was a foolish and broken man, but he was still the best firebender in the nation. Most importantly, he had actual experience in war. Something even Ozai didn’t have. Ozai did begrudge that there were things they could learn from Iroh and not him. And so, Ozai called the two back from Ember Island to the capital. He would at least be able to spare time to see their progress if they were here. It will give him the opportunity to ensure Iroh is not meddling with his tools if they return to the palace. As much as he would love to get Iroh out of the way, he felt safer having them within reach.

“Come in.” Ozai heard a knock on his office door that he taught Azula to use when she was younger. He had just been pondering when the two of them would return and it seems they have. His children entered his office and stopped a respectable distance from his desk. Both obediently kneeled and saluted with their hands in the shape of flame. They used opposite hands when making their flames and it looked as if they were a mirror image of each other. Ozai recognized this movement as the exact same way Li and Lo always saluted. He believed it had something to do with being two halves of the same flame.

“We have finished our four years of training with Master Li and Lo. And as you have commanded,” 

“...we have returned from Ember Island and wait for our opportunity to serve and show our progress to the Fire Lord.” 

The boy spoke with a calm and cold demeanor. His body had filled out into that of a young warrior with a strong stance. The eerie control he exerted over his voice and mannerisms brought a smirk to Ozai’s lips. ‘ _ The boy really has changed.’ _ The girl finished the boy’s words without ever waiting for the boy to continue. Ozai was a bit unsettled by this and the feeling of unease grew when he bid them to rise. He informed them that Iroh would continue their training. His children were taking turns speaking, but doing so fluidly, as if they shared each other’s thoughts. He shook his head from the creepy memory of Li and Lo.  _ ‘Did they really teach these two to be just like them?’  _ Ozai had temporarily lost track of their conversation and began to pay attention to their words again. He had asked them about the deaths and burnings that happened over the last four years before disappearing into his thoughts.

“... They would show such disrespect in the face of their royalty,”

“...and so they had to be taught their place. There really are too many fools out there. The world would be better with a good purging.”

Zuko’s tone was laced with a cold hatred as he mentioned purging the world of such fools and it completely snapped Ozai back to attention. With surprise, he came to the conclusion that he could easily forgive Li and Lo for making his children so dependent on each other, seeing the changes their training had wrought, especially within Zuko. They had clearly made their charges into magnificent tools. His children would prove to be instrumental once they were ready to go to war. Together, Ozai imagined that Ba Sing Se didn’t stand a chance against his two heirs.

Ozai genuinely smiled openly for his two children. He figured he may as well reward them with what he knew they wanted the most: his approval. “Good. Very good. You two have made me very proud. I can’t wait to see how far your bending has progressed.” They didn’t even flinch at his words, but he knew he raised them to crave these words. Their control to hide these emotions, such as how overjoyed they should be, only pleased Ozai more. “Very well. You two are free to do whatever you want for the rest of the night. You will resume your training tomorrow with Iroh. Welcome home, my children.”

Azula and Zuko stood and bowed in unison again before turning to leave. Azula exited the room first, but Zuko stopped before going through the doorway. He turned to face Ozai and bowed once again, remaining rooted in place until he received recognition. Ozai raised an eyebrow and wondered if Zuko was about to display some sort of foolish sentiment. Azula stood in the hallway watching him with a bewildered look on her face.  _ ‘I see. Well, we shall test him and see what this is about. Surely, some of his old personality traits still dwell within. Of course, it’d be too good to be true if he had completely changed.’ _

“What is it, Prince Zuko?” Ozai commanded, reminding the boy of his place, though with a softer edge than he would usually use. Zuko bowed lower then stood tall with his head held high, shoulders squared and hands at his side. His stance was impregnable and slightly intimidating. He looked every bit a fierce warrior.

“I wish to make a request regarding our demonstration for the Fire Lord.” Zuko’s voice was cold and uncaring. His eyes were dark as a nearby candle reflected wickedly in them. Azula stood in the hallway watching the interaction with bated breath. It was clear that she had no idea where this was going. So far the conversation was nothing like what Ozai initially thought the boy was going to begin with. Ozai curiously nods his head for Zuko to continue.

Zuko narrows his eyes as he proposes his request. “Azula and I would prefer to have a challenge when we demonstrate for you, Father Lord.” Ozai’s eyebrow pricks up momentarily at his address. It held a confident tone of familial loyalty and proper respect to him as lord. Ozai was a little unsure how he felt about being called Father Lord, but he had to appreciate the balls it took for Zuko to say that with such confidence. He decided to let it slide.

“Oh? And what kind of challenge are you thinking? What is it that you are wanting?” The boy’s lips, reminiscent of his mother’s, smirked as his eyes grew colder. Ozai was shocked at himself because he was actually holding his own breath in anticipation. This boy really did change. Maybe, just maybe, he had been wrong about the boy. Maybe he really did have what it took to be Fire Lord in the future.

“I wish to choose our opponents. A hundred of the soldiers with real war experience. Our demonstration will take place within two weeks, depending on how long they take to heed our order and return. I will choose a hundred of the best soldiers I can find. Soldiers that will provide a real challenge as we demonstrate our strength against those with real battle experience.”

Ozai had to prop his fist below his chin, making him look like he was thinking it over, to keep his jaw from dropping wide open. Zuko stated his request as if he were commanding Ozai to give his approval, rather than asking for it. “Of course we will try to not kill them…” Zuko inwardly chuckled to himself allowing a single snort of breath to flare his nostrils, which let a tiny bit of smoke roll out. Ozai’s eyes narrowed at the perceived sentimentality.

“However, if they turn out to be too weak and die even when we are trying not to kill them… Well, they should be proud to die by our hands, furthering our training rather than disgracing us by dying at the hands of the peasant barbarians.”

Ozai nearly face planted into his desk. Only stopping himself by slamming his palms down loudly with a laugh and demented grin that reached his eyes. “SPLENDID! Absolutely splendid! HAHAHAHA!!!” Ozai swiftly got up from his chair and walked towards Zuko with purpose. He began slapping him on the back joyously. He grabbed Zuko by the shoulders and left his office grabbing Azula’s shoulders with his free hand to escort his wonderful children down the hallway and into the dining room. “Come! You two will join me for dinner. And Zuko, my son. You have all the time and resources at your disposal to prepare your demonstration however you like! I grant my full permission.”

Azula beamed with delight as she looked at her brother with pride. Ozai noted a fondness in her eyes, but felt it was well placed. Had she shown that fondness for her brother when he was a true failure, he would have squashed such emotions. But this new Zuko? Now he was embracing what he was meant to be. Azula was born lucky. And Zuko was lucky to be born…However, Zuko was beginning to show the strength and demeanor of a true son of Fire Lord Ozai.

_ ‘I need to reevaluate who is to become heir…’  _ Ozai thought while he ate dinner with his children for the first time in four years. ‘ _ Splendid!’ _

-?-

As soon as Zuko’s bedroom door closed, Azula playfully tackled Zuko to his bed while congratulating him. “That was absolutely AMAZING Zuzu!!!” She wraps her arms around him and snuggles into his side. He snorts with laughter and runs his fingers through Azula’s fine hair, causing her to let out a slight purr as she rests her head on Zuko’s muscular chest. “You make me so proud. You displayed exemplary control over yourself and to evoke such a reaction from the Father Lord!” Azula jovially pokes fun at how he had addressed Ozai.

Zuko shakes his head and lets out a breathy laugh. “It’s all thanks to you, Lala. You’re the one who taught me that people are easier to manipulate when you appear to give them what they want first. He always wanted me to be this way: hard and cruel. It is sick and twisted, but this is Ozai we’re dealing with. And it worked! We have his full support to slaughter his own men. Tomorrow, we will begin sifting through reports on all of the soldiers and their actions. We are to only pick out the worst scum.”

Zuko paused in contemplation for a second, then continued, “We will be the firing squad for the bastards who would dare to stain the honor of the Fire Nation. Within two weeks’ time, we will rid the world of a hundred of the worst offenders who represent the Fire Nation’s military.”

Azula felt her heart thump loudly, nearly threatening to break through her ribcage. Lately, Zuko had been inspiring her in so many new ways. She thought about how Ozai led by instilling fear and never-ending snide comments that would cut straight into your heart. His honeyed words spoke of grandeur and glory. He’d tell his people to kill those who will not bow to his rule. He didn’t think twice about cutting down the peasants that would only cause trouble. He truly believed that he could force the world to bend to his will; or he would gladly watch it burn.

But, Zuko was different. When he coolly mentions slaughtering a hundred people, it sends a shiver down her spine. It was no secret that Ozai was just sick and twisted. But Zuko…she knew that despite all his changes, he still cared. His outrage at the atrocities committed on innocents filled Azula with his passion. She felt how true Zuko’s beliefs were. She felt the resounding clarity in her very spirit. She could feel everything while hugging her brother, and she could almost swear she saw the images that went with them.Azula saw the world as it used to be. 

{\  _ People living happily without a care in the world. Birth, life, love, happiness, angst, sadness, passion, hatred, learning, failure, improvement, death, all in a repeating cycle. Everyone lived within the grace of nature and its balance. A balance that wrought peace and tranquility. It was beautiful. Then she saw the comet and an entire people die out. Blurs of red spread across the world. Killing, raping, pillaging, destroying. They were a scourge in the face of humanity, with all their fires bound with undying loyalty to one man. One man turned into several men over the course of the years as their bloodline fell ever further into darkness and insanity. /} _

Azula felt tears escape her eyes as she imagined the beautiful world she saw and loved turn into ash; that the very root of insanity was her own family. Her Great Grandfather, Grandfather, and Father were what caused the very world to turn into ruin. Her own memories flood her as she remembers the kind of man Ozai is. He only uses love as a manipulation tactic to tug at her and Zuko’s hearts. They follow his every command and demented wishes purely for the chance to gain his acknowledgement. How he only ever showed true joy towards them when they showed they were just as demented as he was. The visions continued to flow.

{\  _ She saw herself having lost her sanity and striking down the very people who fought and served her loyally, the palace crumbling in her azure fire. She sees Zuko roaring with blind rage from on top of a mountain of blood and corpses that reaches into the darkened blood red sky, silvery white flames dancing as ash falls and turns his white hair black. Nothing of the world remained but ash and death. A moon forever missing from the sky. Rivers, lakes, the entire ocean, and even the very rain were all replaced with blood. Their father standing, maniacally laughing over their mother’s dead charred corpse. /} _

It was the very picture of hell, and it made Azula shiver with horror. Her breath had caught as soon as it began. She did not want this world. She did not want to end up like that, and even more importantly, she never wanted to see her Zuzu like that. That Zuzu didn’t love, laugh, cry, or yell. He was just death incarnate. The very type of tool that their father wanted. Following their father’s wishes would demand Zuko turn into the terrifying demon she saw that dreadful night four years ago. The one that would forever give her nightmares. It would kill the Zuko she loved, and it would destroy her.

Azula shudders, feeling intense rage and denial. The candles flared to life where they sat around the room. She tightened her arms around Zuko as her heart and mind screamed NO! She imagined the Zuko that would laugh and play with her, loving her unconditionally, despite how horrible she had been with him. She thought of his smile that warms her heart. The way he would hold her on nights she was beset with nightmares. The Zuko that would get outraged at the council happily sending an entire squad of recruits to their deaths, just to be bait for a mission that ultimately failed. The Zuko who would feed the orphans, bring in wild animals to care for them. The bright and joyous Zuko who’s eyes lit up at the sight of their mother’s smile. And the Zuko who swore to always protect her. Azula desperately held onto the image she knew to be her brother, letting it warm her and shine light through the hellacious images in her head.

{\  _ She watches as the roaring Zuko turns calm and dances. His white fire burns away the red sky and turns it clear blue. His fire rages around him, turning him into a beautiful dragon of silver scales with a fiery white mane. His wings spread wide as he takes to the sky and circles around the planet. Bit by bit the world changed as his fire burned away the image of hell incarnate. _

_ In its place she saw the children laughing and dancing, their parents watching happily as clouds lazed overhead. She saw herself standing as Fire Lord. Her nation peacefully respecting others. They were all happy and prosperous. The world didn’t hate them. Instead, the nations worked together to maintain peace and balance. Loving one another as one people. It was beautiful. /} _

Azula had no idea how to create such a world. But, Spirits, she did know that she would do anything she could to see such beauty and feel truly happy. She didn’t want to be the monster her father would turn her into. She just wanted to live happily with her brother at their beach house with the waves caressing their feet as they smiled and hugged.

_ {\ The world shifted again as she flew over the clouds, watching the war from on high. She spirals through a gap in the mist and lands to see herself standing among the other leaders of the world. Water, Earth, Fire, Air. Every element stood together with her guiding them into the Fire Nation. She saw blurs of people that she had no idea who they were. Only the two besides her were recognizable. Her Uncle Iroh, and Zuko. They stood at her sides with confident smiles as people continued endlessly at their sides. It felt like the entire world was standing behind her, following her as they descended on the Fire Nation. _

_ She watches as the battle concludes to an end. There were countless deaths on every side as the moon and sun cycled through the sky at an alarming speed. Eventually, the cycle came to an end. She saw the white dragon standing over the corpse of her father. She walks up to it and places her hands fondly at both sides of the dragon’s snout as she looks into its pure golden eyes. Zuko stares back at her, his feelings of love and happiness flooding into her as the war has finally ended. The world shifts again and she sees herself guiding her people, teaching them to love and make peace, not become monsters who would make the world burn for their greed. _

_ Shifting again, she finds herself sitting besides Zuko in his regal dragon form. They watch the sun rise. The sky is growing bright with a beautiful light azure. Flowers blossoming and turning to the sun, absorbing its rays of warmth. Azula saw the world as it should be. People living happily without a care in the world. Birth, life, love, happiness, angst, sadness, passion, hatred, learning, failing, improving, dying, and repeating this again and again. /} _

Fire is Life.

-?-

Iroh walks into the room his niece and nephew were occupying. He found them sitting with their backs against each other, surrounded by piles of scrolls. He was unsure of what to make of them at the moment. He remembered Azula always playing cruel games, while Zuko was always the brightness in Ursa’s letters. Over the last four years, Iroh became very concerned that Ozai had finally managed to turn his son into a monster, as he had already been doing with Azula.

He remembered the disturbing report saying Zuko had sent over twenty men to their fiery deaths on Ember Island. Iroh knew that those men had come looking for a fight to avenge their disgusting friends, but the ease with which Zuko had dispatched them greatly worried the retired general. He could not deny that Zuko clearly inherited Sozin’s cursed bloodline. As did Ozai, Azula and he himself. Iroh could only hope that he hadn’t given in too far. Their bloodline was not kind to those with good hearts.

However, as Iroh watched them interact together for the first time in years, he was reminded of the old days before Azula had awakened to her firebending. The days when she would laugh and chase after Zuko with a smile. The days when they would both tackle their cousin- Iroh’s late son Lu Ten- to the ground in childish laughter. The days their entire family seemed happy and at peace.

Iroh watches as Azula leans her head back against Zuko’s shoulder and he tilts his head to rest against hers. A small table sits beside them holding a pot of wonderful smelling tea. A growing pile of scrolls were stacked on their other side. They took turns reading scrolls and passing them to each other while debating over them. Occasionally, they would roll it back up, Azula would pass it to Zuko and he’d place it in their pile, or Zuko would pass it to Azula for her to chuck it into a large bucket across the room from them.

Curious, Iroh sits down quietly and picks up a scroll to inspect what they are looking at and listen to their ongoing debate.

“Commander Zhao.” Azula reads from the scroll she has unraveled, taking a moment to sip her tea. Zuko leans back exasperatedly.

“Ugh, I hate that pig headed farce. He is so far up Ozai’s ass, and way too motivated for glory. He is also one of the ones responsible for the 42nd Squadron’s deaths, right?  _ Sigh _ … I’d love to get rid of him, but I regret to say we have more worthy candidates to take care of first.” Azula tosses the scroll into the bin.

Iroh silently chokes on his own cup of tea as he listens in. He quickly forces himself to fully swallow as to not draw their attention. ‘ _ Just what are those two talking about?'  _ Iroh's eyes widened as he continued listening.

“What about Sergeant Major Kitioma?” Zuko offers this time. He passes the scroll back to Azula for her to look over it.

“Hmm… Multiple accounts of hazing his soldiers. Over a hundred accounts of female marines accusing him of molestation. Hundreds of times he’s led his men to rape and pillage women after gutting their husbands and sons before them. Torture… Shagging Komodo Rhinos?!” Azula shivers in rightful disgust. She shakes her head while rolling the scroll back up, before silently passing it to Zuko. He adds it to their growing pile in an unspoken agreement.

“How many do we have now?” Zuko looks at Azula as she mentally counts and responds with, “Fifty-two. We should be able to finish making a list of a hundred in a couple hours. I can’t believe that we have so much disgusting filth in our troops…”

“Mhmm.” Iroh starts to more thoroughly look over about twenty different scrolls before him. All of them are soldiers, sailors, and marines that have committed absolutely horrendous war crimes. He begins to realize that his niece and nephew are debating who is the worst and is placing those who made the cut into their ever growing pile. “I am rather pleased that I don’t see any of Uncle’s men in these. Ah…”

Iroh looks up to see Azula and Zuko turn their heads to him and greet him warmly. “Hello, Uncle Iroh. Sorry that we aren’t getting up to greet you,” Zuko nods his head politely with a smile and twinkling in his eyes. Azula gives Iroh a warm smile as well, fully surprising him.

“But please do join us for tea.” Azula gestures to the other side of their small table. “Zuko brewed my favorite blend, though you might find it a bit sweet.” Iroh gets up and goes to sit by the children, a bit shaken up about what is currently happening.

“Actually, Uncle, I think you may be able to help us.” Zuko held out a scroll for Iroh. He took it and saw it contained a list of the names they had written down.

“You undoubtedly know of some of the worst men possible among our military.” Azula seamlessly continues. “Would you be willing to contribute to our list of the worst scum among our soldiers?” Iroh finishes pouring himself a cup of Zuko’s tea. He briefly pondered when Zuko learned to make tea that smells so wonderful. He was always too impatient whenever Iroh tried to teach him.

Iroh takes a sip of his tea, startling with shock at how wonderful it was. Indeed, it was a little sweet, but the soft, fragrant aroma blended together to make for a truly marvelous taste. Not the best tea Iroh has ever had, but he definitely tasted potential. One that could eventually beat his own in the years to come, should Zuko keep up his amazing work with tea.

“Your tea is indeed wonderful Prince Zuko. It soothes this old man to the bones with its warmth and calming splendor.” Azula smiles as she nudges Zuko gently. Zuko nods his head to Iroh again in thanks. “So you are looking for what you consider to be the worst scum of our military? May I ask why?”

Azula laughs jubilantly, the lightness and sincerity surprising Iroh. Maybe his niece wasn’t completely lost after all. “Oh Uncle Iroh, you wouldn’t believe it! Zuzu surprised father so much that he readily agreed to our request, not even knowing what exactly we had in store. All father could say was how proud he was, not even realizing we are about to eradicate the very bastards he most approves of.”

Iroh looks up, completely alarmed. He looks over his shoulder to the door some ways behind him in this large room. “Don’t worry Uncle.” Zuko looks at him knowingly. “We made sure to adequately clear the premises. There will be no one to overhear us. Surely you noticed how the staff avoided this part of the palace like the plague, and there are no guards anywhere near us?”

Iroh had indeed noticed this. It was part of what made him so worried that his niece and nephew were completely lost to him. The meaning behind their words finally dawns on Iroh. They ensured there were no witnesses to overhear them planning to undermine Ozai, and for whatever reason, they saw Iroh as fit to join them.

“What exactly are you planning?” Iroh asks carefully. He felt a budding hope that these children were turning towards the world with clear eyes, realizing the horrors the Fire Nation was causing.

“Ozai.” Iroh looked up from the list he was reading over and widened his eyes at the clear sound of disdain in the prince’s voice. He noticed the way his fists clenched when saying his father’s name, and how it relaxed as Azula soothingly placed her hand over his. “He wants us to give him a demonstration of how we have progressed over the four years we spent at Ember Island. So I requested that he let us decide our opponents to give us a challenge while showing him our strength. I convinced him to let us pick a hundred men for us to face off against. He very willingly agreed.”

Iroh sat there dumbfounded, but he slowly began to piece together the mystery. Azula adds with an unnerving child-like giggle, “Zuzu said that we wouldn’t try to kill them. But, if they just so happened to die during our demonstration, then they should be proud to die for the benefit of our training. Father was overjoyed with him that he gave him all the time, resources, and permission he needs to select our one hundred men.”

“So, now we are accumulating a list of the worst scum within our military that the world would be eternally better without. Men that should die for their actions, and men that will have to die if we are to ever be able to end this accursed war.”

Iroh had to laugh at the horrendously fitting dichotomy of how only one of Sozin’s blood could so calmly speak of killing a hundred men in order to ensure peace. Grim planning aside, Iroh felt his budding hope blossom wondrously. “So, you are here planning to weed out the worst of our forces in a way to undermine the Fire Lord’s war with his own approval?” Iroh cracked up internally. The irony of what they were doing was so amazingly brilliant that he would be a fool not to laugh. They were using Sozin’s blood and inherited gifts of genius strategy and Ozai’s manipulative teachings against him and he had no idea.

Iroh could see, all too vividly, how his brother would applaud his children as they conspired against him and killed a hundred of his most appalling men. The very men that Ozai would gladly approve and even encourage their actions. ‘ _ Only in Sozin’s line…’ _ Iroh thought with a melancholy sadness. Iroh greatly disliked that these children had to embrace the darkness in their veins in order to do the necessary dirty work for the good of the world. ‘ _ Is this what the Spirits had decided would be a fitting punishment for our family’s crimes? That our children have to die and wash their hands in blood so that we can atone for the transgressions of our fathers?’ _

Iroh was startled by his abrupt realization. ‘ _ Wait, what made them so sure that I would help them?’ _ Iroh shivered at that thought his niece and nephew had unquestionably come close to coercing him into admitting extremely treasonous beliefs. ‘ _ Could this be another one of Ozai’s traps? Using his children to make me admit my indiscretions against the Fire Nation?’ _

“What makes you believe I will help you with undermining the Fire Nation’s war?” Iroh hated having to be so suspicious of these children. They were so young and should never have to be faced with contempt and hostility within their own family. But, he had been away for far too long. He had no idea what has become of them or just how far they have fallen. If he is able, Iroh would love to bring them to his side, but he needs to be positive they are being genuine.

“Agni.” Zuko answered with one word. An answer that Iroh would never have dreamed possible. Iroh’s breath was caught and he has to cough the tea out of his lungs before setting his cup down carefully. “One night… Agni came to me. He conveyed… It wasn’t in words really. More of a flow of images and emotions. He showed me the world as it was, what it will become if things continue on its current path. Either the death of the world, or the eradication of the Fire Nation. Agni shared how the Great Spirits were debating over what to do. Some thought that they should just wipe out humanity completely from the world and let that restore the balance. But Agni and Tui were trying to fight for us. They are trying to convince the others to pick champions to bestow with their power in order to gather the strength to end this war.”

Iroh blanches as he hears just how clear Zuko’s vision and understanding was. Iroh had received his vision after Lu Ten’s death under the walls of Ba Sing Se. It had taken him recalling his loyalty from his father, surviving, and then going on his enlightening spiritual journey to even begin to grasp what the vision the spirits had given him meant. While Iroh could now extrapolate what they were telling him, he still knew that he had only managed to scratch the surface.  _ ‘Humans are frail and incapable of bearing a Great Spirit’s wisdom in its entirety. Most would lose their minds if not become a hollow shell of themselves.’ _ Iroh grew uneasy, worrying about what sort of cost young Zuko had to pay in order to receive this vision and be able to understand it so clearly…

Zuko continues solemnly. “Agni granted me with the knowledge that the war needs to end and we need to do something about it if we wish to see that the Fire Nation survives it. He may have turned his back on Ozai, but he still loves the people and wishes to see us return to the way we should be. I now know what our people are supposed to be. Agni said that in time I will be able to fully convey what that is, but for now, we should wait for the time to be right to strike out and fight back. To end the Avatar’s decree that constricts our people, and to help bring the world into peace.”

Azula clasps her hands with Zuko, intertwining them caringly as she supports him with her back. Iroh watches as Zuko’s eyes un-gloss from the entranced gaze into nowhere. His voice returns to normal as it had been in a startling multi-layered voice that sent tremors down Iroh’s spine. “When I asked how to find help, because I am only a kid and doubted I could pull this off on my own… I was told that there are kin of my blood unlike the rest, and that loving elders would be people that I can go to and trust. It was cryptic at first, but when I thought about it, the only ones unlike the rest of Sozin’s line alive are Azula, myself, and you, Uncle Iroh.”

Zuko had turned his head to Iroh with an endlessly tired gaze. Zuko had an aged look of countless centuries echoing within his golden eyes. Iroh stares back at his nephew, speechless, for a good while. If the spirits had done something unspeakable to this boy, he would raise a ruckus and make them pay. But as he watches the boy, he notices Zuko’s eyes reflect a ghostly fire of one spiritually connected. Zuko takes a long calming sip of his tea, looking like an ancient soul seeking solace from the things he knew. All of a sudden, the young Prince’s newfound patience for making true tea became alarmingly clear. Zuko has seen far more than he was letting on, and like Iroh, has turned to the calmingness of tea in order to soothe his heart from the terrors that undoubtedly trouble him.

Iroh similarly takes a long draught from his tea before refilling his cup and finishing it. He didn’t trust himself to speak until he had slowly finished another cup and set it down. Iroh decidedly aligns with his niece and nephew. ‘ _ These two were heading into a very large world riddled with troubles due to our family’s hundred years of war.’ _ Iroh would be damned if he let them try to solve it alone. Together, they could bring an end to this war. When the time is right, he will bring them with him to leave the Fire Nation and side with the other nations. They will do everything they can to figure out how to unravel the Avatar’s decree over their people. But for now, Iroh will help these two children with their plan.

“Alright. You said that you have fifty-two candidates, right? I see some names that I recognize and fully agree on, and I do so happen to know of forty-eight more men worthy of being on this list. But some of these men are master firebenders with decades of experience.” Iroh conspires with them. “I will need to make sure you two will be capable of handling them before you go and try to fight them.” Iroh’s heart stammers as he sees the two smiling in unison. It was unnerving how their eyes twinkled with delight and confidence in eradicating a hundred highly skilled firebending soldiers and masters.

_ ‘Oh how lucky the world is…’ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who has waited for so long. The actual chapter 3 is finally out. I hope that you guys enjoyed getting to see some quality family time for the royal family. Chapters 4 and 5 are on their way. Please feel free to let us know what you think, it always helps motivate me to see your reactions.
> 
> Thank you as always, NovemGirl, for your wonderful editting.
> 
> By the way, I am sorry to those who got their comments deleted when I was reposting Chapter 3 and re-doing the Author's Note before that. I greatly appreciate your support. My dumbass just went and deleted the chapter to post it anew without realizing that AO3 would also delete the comments tied to that chapter.


	4. The Agni Kai

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zuko and Azula start to put their plans into action. Soon enough, the time has come for Zuko to make his move and fake his death. Now it falls to Azula to carry out her portion of the plan as Zuko sets out to do what he must.

_ Two Weeks Later... _

_ ‘Oh how lucky the world is that these two are on the side of restoring peace.’ _

Iroh shivered at the thought of what would happen if Zuko and Azula were loyal to their father. He and Ozai were currently seated next to each other as they watched their terrifying demonstration of skill. Ozai sits on the very edge of his seat and watches with rapt attention. Azula just shot a bolt of lightning through two already wounded combatants. Iroh could only grimace at how the two children were dispatching a hundred men at least three times their age in experience with such ease. They reminded him of pygma pumas torturously playing with their prey.

Zuko gracefully maneuvered opposite Azula to better receive her lightning and redirect it into the throng of panicking soldiers. The hundred men had been overly confident at first, only to be shattered as soon as their two opponents started to attack. During the demonstration, the number was dwindling down at an alarming rate. Many of the weaker benders lay in a heap of charred corpses all across the training ground. The soldiers were terrified, and Iroh watches as the older masters try to reign in their men to calm down and stand firmly. ‘ _ These were just two children after all. Surely, the group of sixty remaining experienced firebenders could survive the onslaught of two kids who couldn’t possibly know what they’re doing… Right?’ _

_ ‘Ha.’ _ Iroh laughs at his own morbid joke. He cannot tear his eyes away from the scene of men being slaughtered like cattle by two children… ‘ _ These are royal imperial firebenders.’ _ Iroh had to mock himself for being worried about whether these two would be capable of handling the master benders they chose to fight. Ozai has yet to say anything the entire time. Then Iroh realized he never had to. Ozai’s usually carefully schooled face that rarely gives any indication as to what he was thinking was completely broken within the first two minutes of the demonstration. As he watched the two move, he understood why. 

Azula and Zuko were synchronous in their movements, utilizing two different styles. How that was possible, Iroh couldn’t even begin to fathom himself. He recognized the extremely polished perfection of Azula’s technique as Sozin’s style. But Zuko’s was something completely different. His movements were wave-like and unpredictable. As Iroh watched them, he began associating them with dancers. Or more like dragons. They were two dragons dancing a dangerous tirade of death and fire. 

Zuko would wait for the attack to come at him before tearing the opponents’ fires from their control and use it to circle around Azula and himself, protecting them from all sides as they let themselves be surrounded. In the meantime, Azula would go on the offense and blast her azure fire at all who came too close. They let the remaining benders think that they were backed into each other, letting them get cocky enough to let their guard down. It was in that moment, when fiery attacks surrounded them on all sides that Zuko swirled and caught their fires, Azula would add her own to the swirling vortex that roared with horrifying might. Azula remains ready as Zuko stands up to his full height, legs straight and together with his arms bent perpendicularly to his torso, hands caging a small ring of fire before his chest. Fire blinded the soldiers, making them unable to see what the siblings were preparing for them. They were all unaware that they should be readying defensive action if they wished to survive, rather than continue to add fuel to the incoming attack that would mark their doom.

Their years of experience, however, did not protect them from the firestorm that suddenly expanded outwards when Zuko fully extended his arms. His hands clenched the air like claws as the fire swept past them, leaving them mostly unharmed. Azula and Zuko remain in the center of their enemies while their foes squander, trying to figure out what nightmarish bending was about to occur as fire corralled them from being able to run away. Oh, they tried. At least five fools decided to brave the fires caging them in with the terrifyingly strong children, only to be burnt to ash, disappearing in seconds as if they had never existed.

Zuko stood calmly in the center of his storm, with closed eyes and deep gravitating breaths. Iroh scoots to the front of his seat like Ozai, eyes wide and terrified, as he feels his inner fire tremor. Iroh reaches out and feels Zuko’s ki spread out and seep into the thirty remaining bastards, taking hold of their inner fires. He closes his fists and brings all of the men down to their knees, clutching their chest, mouths open but no sound as the screams fail to escape them.

Iroh could feel their inner fires rise and fall with Zuko's breath; just like with candle light meditation, but on a wholly new terrifying level. The men crumble to the ground as they feel their inner fires, their very life force, suffocate. Ozai was shivering with terror at the implications of this technique. 

Zuko looks up to his father, staring directly into his eyes, almost as if he were staring at Ozai’s bare soul.

Iroh feels Zuko clench tighter on the war criminals' fires before giving a heart wrenchingly wicked smile as his fists unclench and flare up the fires of the soldiers and setting them on fire with their own internal flame. Ozai stood up in shock as they watched the men burn alive from the inside out. Horrifyingly gruesome screams suddenly cut off as flames flick out of their throats and sear through their very flesh, dropping all thirty remaining firebending masters dead.

-?-

Ozai sat at the large oblong round table during a war meeting. Zuko sat to his right side with Azula to his left. Iroh sat to Zuko’s right, and the generals sat around the rest of the war table, a map sprawled out with little figurines marking tactical points, fortresses, and places of interest. Rightly, no one dared to sit in the seat directly across from Ozai. That would be paramount to claiming themselves equal to the Fire Lord himself. The only ones he would ever allow to sit there would be one of his children as they were the only ones who were worthy enough.

It was obvious that the generals, old war dogs that were now mostly sitting pretty on their ornate seats, were highly confused as to why the Prince and Princess were present here today. Normally, Ozai would never bother to have them here. He wondered just what sort of foolish things the boy and girl might say, but they just sat there, listening intently with thoughtful expressions.  _ 'It seems that they are taking this time to learn what they can from these old farts.' _ The conversation had changed to what they should do to bolster their war strength. They considered drafting more peasants, while raising the maximum age and lowering the minimum age for eligibility.

Zuko shakes his head in distaste as he switches which hand was resting over the other. This catches Ozai’s eye and he turns to see Zuko with his eyebrow raised in disgusted amusement. Ozai realizes that Azula is making a similar face as they both look down the table with disappointment. The boy repeats the same hands crossing motion to draw Ozai’s attention again. He looks into Zuko’s eyes and sees a dark flicker in them as they narrow at the generals with a shake of his head.

“Prince Zuko. Why don’t you share your thoughts with us on this subject? Surely your young, fresh mind can give us a new outlook on this dilemma.” Ozai addresses him, giving him permission to speak. At least, that’s what he thought Zuko’s twitching was for. Alas, Ozai was right. When called upon, Zuko smirked and glared at the room of Generals. It was like a predator carefully watching a herd for the weakest link that will be its next meal. Ozai found it exhilarating. ' _ Damn, just what is with this kid? He used to be so soft, emotional, and weak. But now… Now he keeps on surprising me, and making me ever more proud.' _

Ozai thought about the events of the last few months after their demonstration: 

* _ Ozai had decided to reward their best young captain. The boy had just turned twenty. He was the youngest recorded firebending master in the last hundred years; as well as the most promising Officer among their Marines with signs of what it took to grow into a tactical genius. He just so happened to be Lu Ten’s best friend. As a Noble, Master Firebender, and youngest Captain in records with plenty of achievements and talent, Ozai thought he would be a good candidate to become Azula’s husband. It wasn’t all that surprising that Azula wasn’t pleased with this arrangement. She admitted that the man was promising and definitely one worth grooming for even greater heights, but she was still not happy with him. She wanted someone equal to her as her spouse and Captain Kidori was not what she had in mind. _

_ Ozai had suggested that she fight him and see what she thinks of him. There was no surprise that Azula had wiped the floor with him. But, Ozai still thought he was the best candidate for what they had available that would even be somewhat pleasing to her. Ozai ordered Azula to groom the young Captain into something that she would be okay with. She grumbled something about already grooming her chosen mate, which had surprised Ozai, but she still followed his order when she wasn’t pressed further about who she had been grooming. _

_ Then, one night, Ozai invited Captain Kidori to join his family for dinner. Zuko challenged him to an Agni Kai after they had finished eating. Ozai nearly choked on his food, and Azula seemed ecstatic. Zuko ordered the Captain to train his heart out, and do everything he could to learn from why he lost to Azula if he were to ever have a chance against Zuko. The Agni Kai had been set for two weeks from that night. In the meantime, Zuko and Azula continued to learn from Iroh, and Captain Kidori followed Zuko’s order to train his heart out. Zuko gave Kidori two extra days so he could get a proper rest after training as hard as he did before fighting him. However, Zuko still ended up wiping the floor with him just as easily as Azula did. _

_ “You really didn’t learn anything at all, did you? You have promise, but you are not fit to court Azula.” Zuko then proceeded to turn to their spectators and announce, “Know this, and spread it all throughout the world. If you can’t even manage to defeat me in an Agni Kai, then you will never stand a chance to court Princess Azula.” _

_ The next couple months were filled with Agni Kai requests for Zuko as he skillfully took down almost a hundred firebenders a day, seven days a week, for two months straight. When Ozai asked about this, Zuko replied that it was a matter of erasing his past as a weak fool, training himself against numerous different opponents to further his combat experience, increasing his endurance and stamina, as well as ensuring that no one unworthy was trying to court Azula. Ozai had to appreciate the level of efficiency and skill with which Zuko went about his task. He was right, if they couldn’t even manage to defeat Zuko, they were definitely not worthy enough to court Azula. Although Ozai had begun to suspect that Zuko may be on the same level of Azula. Unmatched without peers aside from each other. _

_It was around the time of that realization that Azula came to Ozai with the request to marry Zuko. Ozai was truly thrown off by this, but he wasn’t totally against it either. Azula made an undeniable argument that they were likely to never find someone more fitting to be her husband than her own brother. There would be no doubt about Zuko’s bloodline, his skill with his unorthodox bending, or his ability to show the divine might of Sozin’s bloodline. She even went as far as to remind Ozai about Zuko’s ability with Inner Fire…_ _Truthfully, Ozai had been doing everything he could not to think about that, hoping it had been a dream._ _The end of their demonstration, when they dispatched a hundred of the most interesting benders they could find, was the stuff of nightmares that actually managed to wake Ozai up from his sleep._

_ The way Zuko had held Ozai’s eye contact was what Ozai imagined staring death in the face would be like. Zuko resembled a demon as he clenched down, bit by bit, on the inner fires of over thirty men, crippling them to the ground as if their life was being torn from their very bodies. He had clenched even further, hinting that he could just snuff them out like insignificant candles, only to do the opposite and make their own fires turn them to nothing but ash. Ozai had listened in on Iroh questioning Zuko about the terrifying technique. Zuko said it required a certain mood to pull off, he wasn’t so sure about how exactly he did it himself, but he had decided to make them suffer and burn just for the hell of it. This technique would fill Ozai with nightmares where he would see a silvery-white dragon stare down at him as it clenched Ozai’s fire, snuffing him out. So when Zuko didn’t use this move in the Agni Kai against the wanna-be suitors, Ozai wasn’t complaining. Instead, he accepted Azula’s request and announced Zuko’s and Azula’s engagement.* _

_ 'It really is the best way to ensure the purity of their bloodline, and any heirs they produce would be so thick with Sozin’s blood that they were to undoubtedly be prodigious and perfect in every aspect.' _ Of course there was a mini uproar about that among the people, but their complaints were insignificant and easily silenced. “Well Father-Lord…” Zuko snaps Ozai out of his little reverie back to the present meeting with his confident nickname of sorts. The room whispered in reaction to Zuko’s unique address, but Ozai let it slide.

Instead, he paid rapt attention to his son with almost giddy anticipation. Zuko had a tendency to use that form of address whenever he was about to be a pinnacle paragon of Sozin’s bloodline. “It seems that your advisors are suggesting that we throw garbage on top of trash. Too blind and foolish to know what the actual problem is…” Zuko tilted his head tauntingly, daring the Generals to contradict him. “Unless someone thinks I am wrong, of course.”

Ozai immediately recognizes the same cold, cutting voice he often uses to control people. Snide comments here and there to disarm them and keep them unsteady, or blindly furious to show what they were really thinking. All of the General’s, except for Iroh and his friends at the table, were furious with Zuko for calling them out. The arguably smarter Generals, along with Iroh, were trying to hide their mirth. “It would seem that is so. What do you suggest, my son?” Zuko shares a swift glance with Azula before they both nod. Zuko stands from his seat and commandingly addresses the war council.

“The suggestions you were making about just adding more forces is absolutely stupid and make you about as worthy as barbaric Earth Kingdom peasants.” Zuko's voice was laced with a cold venom as he stared down into each of their eyes, forcing them to slouch worriedly in their seats. “Most of you here make me sick. You are just sitting here comfortably on your sequined cushions. You have lost your edge and grown into old fools. Shape up before I personally drag you to the frontlines and hand you to the Earth Kingdom for a crushing.” 

Ozai almost shivered with the ease and enjoyment of which Zuko made his threat to the Generals. It was well known how the Earth Kingdom made sport of crushing a firebender’s hands and feet with boulders so that they would never bend again. Ozai is thoroughly pleased with how the boy addresses the council and whips them all into sitting up straight rather than lounging about. Ozai even subconsciously sits straighter in his own sequined chair. Zuko snorts, dissatisfied with the war council, before turning to Ozai himself and making his suggestion.

“While great numbers of weakness might overpower in some cases, the cost is still too great to be worth it. I suggest that we put a pause on the war.” The council erupts in discourse during Zuko’s pause, but only Ozai and Azula are in position to see Zuko roll his eyes in beratement. “SILENCE you fools! It is clear that you are all too incompetent to see the truth in what needs to be done! So sit quiet and wait until you have been spoken to!” Zuko reprimands the War Council, quelling their outburst with ease.

“I am not saying to completely withdraw. No, not completely. We would leave enough of the trained and skilled in the field to maintain our current hold on the world while withdrawing everyone else.” Zuko waits for everyone to quiet down before continuing. “With the way things are going, it will be the Forty-Second all over again, and then we’ll be sending out anything that can start a spark. I am beginning to think that these fools are trying to make us lose this war.” Zuko jerks his head in the direction of the generals at the opposite side of the table from him. Ozai glances at them and sees them quivering in their seats. ' _ This boy truly is my son after all…' _

“The true problem is the lack of training in our fighters, benders, and schools. My proposal is to withdraw the majority of our forces, and make those that remain go into hiding until we are ready. Let the other nations think the war has ended. Let them grow complacent. We will utilize this time to retrain our men and women, so we may turn them into true warriors, rather than the green recruits they are right now. We bring back our best so they may further train our military. Reinstate stringent firebending classes back in the schools so our children are on more even footing when they come of age to join the military themselves. Train them all to unparalleled heights. This way, instead of mountains of mediocre garbage, we have all the highly skilled and trained numbers that we actually need to make a difference.” Zuko theatrically turned to address the entire council. It was marvelous really. Ozai could see it already. The world would turn weak and think that they were safe, lowering their guard until the Fire Nation was ready to strike anew.

“Train, improve, organize. To reiterate, let the world grow weak and complacent as they think the war is over and we are too weak to strike again. We will have to make all of our forces disappear at once. They will be too confused and battered to react. Instead they will have to take care of their own and try to treat the burns we have given them. We will go to sleep and wait for the ultimate moment to strike. Our airship fleet is brewing, and we will need to thoroughly train them for that as well. Then…” Zuko stops dramatically one more time. The entire room was frozen with rapt attention. Everyone, Ozai included, were waiting for Zuko to continue as he raises his head high and arms outward, palms facing the heavens regally.

“Then, on the day of Sozin’s Comet, we set out into the world again for one extremely powerful attack. On that day, using our renewed fleet, we will rise from the ashes as phoenixes reborn to cripple the world and make them easy pickings for us to bend to our divine rule.” The Council were all in awe with this strategy, it could work, but there was one issue to be had with it.

“What if the Avatar somehow returns?” ' _ There! That was the thing that was itching at the back of my head! Indeed… What if the Avatar returns? What do you have to say to this Zuko?' _ Ozai’s heart skipped a beat as he saw Zuko crack into a broad smile. It’s like Ozai is staring at a much younger version of his Grandfather, Fire Lord Sozin himself. A wicked gleam flares in Zuko’s eyes. He was clearly waiting for this exact question. Ozai sees Azula hiding her smile behind her cup of tea.

“Easy.” Zuko gestures ever so majestically to himself and Azula. “It is highly unlikely that the Avatar has survived and managed to stay hidden for so long. If so, we will undoubtedly be dealing with an untrained Avatar. I propose we send out a very small squad on a lightly crewed sparrow cruiser. One half works an inside angle of trying to bring the Avatar to our side, while the other half forces him to keep moving enough so that he can’t settle down and train. If we manage to persuade the Avatar to our side then great, if not?” Zuko shrugs as if it were of no consequence. “Then there’s an undertrained Avatar too weak to do anything about it. After all, aren’t we the ones who know best just how dangerous the ground fire and supposedly dormant volcano is?” Zuko bows gracefully with a dramatic flare causing the entire room to burst into cheering and chanting. 

“All Hail Fire Lord Ozai! All Hail Prince Zuko! All Hail Princess Azula! Long Live the Fire Nation!!! ALL HAIL FIRE LORD OZAI!!! ALL HAIL PRINCE…” Ozai beams with pride as he and everyone in the room stands. A hand each on Azula and Zuko’s shoulder, he looks at each of them before they stand tall before the rest of the War Council and bask in the rising volume of continuous praise and undying loyalty. ' _ This. This is how it should be!' _

-?-

_ Two months later. Six months before the Avatar’s return. _

Azula sat in her seat besides Ozai, waiting for the Agni Kai to start. She quietly thinks to herself about the events of the last couple months. 

They had gained Ozai’s full support with Zuko’s overly dramatic proposal for how to deal with the war. Preparations for most of the Army, Navy, and Marines to return home for their retraining in earnest before Sozin’s Comet were under way. It was going to take a while longer for things to be set for them to return all at once, so it was decided that they would continue to leave enough wounds on the Earth Kingdom to ensure that they’ll be too busy recovering to come after the Fire Nation.

It really was a marvelous plan. Azula could also see how it would work. It made her shudder about how the world would truly become hell if she and Zuko were actually on their father’s side. Azula hadn’t talked over that plan at all with Zuko, but when he glanced at her after Ozai gave him the clear to speak… Azula had seen the echo of Sozin’s genius strategic skill in Zuko’s eyes. Zuko had formulated a plan, and Azula knew that she could put her trust in him. Afterwards, Zuko told her that he could not share the full extent of his plan yet, but he had a feeling that the time to act was drawing near. When they are safely away from Ozai, he would fill her in completely.

It had hurt that he didn’t trust her with his full plan yet, but then she decided to try and devise how she would counter what Zuko had proposed that day to the War Council. ' _ Oh… yeah, I am going to stop devising how I would counter that. No wonder Zuzu wouldn’t tell me. If there was any chance of Ozai torturing it out of me… Yeah…' _ Wait until they were safely away from Ozai indeed. Azula was getting a bit antsy for when the time to act would come. She was ready. She wanted to be as far away from Ozai as possible. She would rather die than let him make her into his insane and broken murder machine. __

_ 'At least Zuzu’s Agni Kai’s are all fun to watch.' _ She was trying to distract her thoughts and instead focused on the scene in front of her. Zuko was preparing calmly for the start of the match on the side of her and the Fire Lord. Their Father was watching excitedly. Azula knew that he was looking forward to seeing Zuko fight. So was she. And for more reasons than just seeing her beloved brother fight off to keep his position as her fiance. This time things were more dire. His opponent on the other side of the field is none other than General Zhong from the War Council. The man was even older than her Uncle Iroh, who is more than two decades older than her own father! For Agni’s sake! The very thought that this old bag of bones was trying to become her husband was enough to make Azula want to give up all decorum and vomit everywhere.

Even Uncle Iroh was extremely disgusted and unnerved when he learned that General Zhong was in the lineup for Zuzu’s duels. This feeling was exacerbated when Uncle shared about Zhong’s penchant for little girls. Zuko got that murderous look in his eye when he heard this and had asked Uncle Iroh about the specifics on when it was okay to kill someone in an Agni Kai. Iroh, and his fuddy-duddy-ness, was startled by the question, but it didn’t take him long to realize what Zuko was asking. After a moment of silence, Uncle finally spoke up while the three of them were drinking Zuko’s brewed tea. “Technically, you are always permitted to kill your opponent in an Agni Kai. The only caveat to that is how the spectators would react if the death came to an already defeated and helpless opponent, or one who refuses to fight. And while I would usually be against killing your opponent like this, Zhong is someone I would make an exception for. So, if you are to kill him, make it quick so that it is in reaction to the fight, not as an act of cruelty.”

-?-

_ 'The Avatar is returning…' _ Azula thought absentmindedly as the minutes ticked by into an hour. The entire arena was silently watching Zuzu and Zhong as they stood still; watching and waiting for the other to give any sign of an opening. You could always tell who the masters are and who thought they were. The pathetic jokes that thought they were would become impatient waiting for something to finally happen. Whereas, the real Masters would be sitting at the edges of their seats in rapt attention as if watching the most intense fight of the century. This was a true fight of Masters. There would be only one move that would happen, and that would determine the outcome of the Agni Kai in seconds. It was clear that Zhong intended to kill Zuko, and Zuko patiently waited for it to come, so that he may erase Zhong from existence.

Ironically, Ozai was one of the people getting impatient. Azula didn’t know how he did not realize what was happening. From the very start, Azula was able to feel the fight of wills and inner fire as Zhong attempted to instantly crush Zuko’s will and inner fire with his own, though he remained unaffected. Instead, he impassively stares at Zhong, letting him wear himself out bit by bit. Azula could only feel the fight going on, but she imagined that the real Masters, like Uncle Iroh, who was also at the edge of his seat, could see the very embodiments of their inner fires and wills duking it out. Though Ozai is capable of reaching out to another’s inner fire to feel and manipulate them, Azula wondered if he could only do so when necessary, and he was actually incapable of passively noticing it like Azula did. It was obvious he could not see the battle raging inside of the two opponents in front of them.

_ 'Is the Avatar really returning?' _ Azula went back to her previous thought. 

_ *She had woken up an hour before dawn, upset to see that Zuko wasn’t lying in bed with her, only to be startled by him sneaking back into her room from the veranda and the turtleduck pond. He had this solemn look on his face and was extremely deep in thought. Azula drew him into a hug before walking him through their usual routine of quickly bathing each other before doing their morning workout and training. When they were doing their cool down stretches, Zuko finally spoke up. _

_ “The Moon called out to me last night…” Azula had been startled by this sudden half explanation. “She said that for a hundred years, she and the others had no idea where the Avatar and World Spirit had disappeared to. They were not even sure when, if at all, they would return. Because of this, they jointly decided to interfere directly and create their champions of each element that would work together to end the war. It is composed of benders who are geniuses in their bending and were gifted by their patron spirit with great luck and fortune. You are Agni’s Champion by the way, Lala. They didn’t tell me that, but they didn’t have to.” _

_ Zuko had wrapped his arms around her in a tight hug, which had her suddenly worried she was going to lose her brother. A feeling that is still plaguing her half a day later. “They were completely in the dark regarding the Avatar, but they recently felt a pulse signalling that the World Spirit is waking up, and with it, the return of the Avatar. It will be soon- half a year at most- but before that… I have a few things that I need to take care of first.” Zuko leaned back and wiped a tear from Azula’s face. She knew he was saying goodbye and she hated it. He smiled reassuringly and kissed her before pressing their foreheads together. “I am telling you this now in case I don’t get the chance to speak to you for awhile. We WILL see each other again. I promise.” The determination and sense of otherness flashed through his eyes as he bore into her own. _

_ “Wait until the sign appears; you will know when it does. As soon as you recognize it, you will need to go to the South Pole. That is where you will find a young, bald airbending Monk. I have a feeling that you will have to spur him into action to leave the safety of the pole and egg him on to learn the elements.” Zuzu gave her one of her favorite wicked grins. “But I know that you’ll have no issue doing that, Lala. I need you to make him travel through the world to learn, herd him in the direction of Water then Earth. You will have to be his Firebending teacher. Herd him around until I am ready to join them. Then we will all meet up before the Eclipse. In the meantime, I need you to keep an ear open to what is going on here. Be our spy and continue manipulating Ozai so he falls right into our trap. I know that only you are capable of this, Lala. I believe in you.” _

_ Azula nodded her head, determined. He had shared some of his plans with her. The Eclipse would be the key to ruining Ozai, and in the meantime, Zuzu was counting on her. She drew strength and warmth from this knowledge. She would carry out her role dutifully and to the best of her ability. Agni himself may have made her his champion and it made sense- really- but it was because Zuzu needed her. That and the knowledge of the fate of the world if the Fire Nation wins the war. She had no choice but to dedicate herself to this. “Uncle Iroh can’t know any of this by the way, not until we are able to really reunite. I will have to fake my death very soon, and from then on Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation will be dead. I will forever be your Zuzu.” _

_ Zuko looked up into the brightening sky with a warm smile. Zuko was ready for whatever was going to happen. “What are you going to do Zuzu?” Azula had a feeling there was more he needed to tell her, but she had to know. _

_ “Easy. I am going to commit treason. Since I can no longer live my life as Prince Zuko, I will make sure I go out with a bang.” Azula’s eyes widened in shock, but knew it was only fitting. She had to admit she always knew this day would eventually come. Zuko’s fate had changed ever since that night Orochi attacked. “I am going to commit treason and force Ozai to try to kill me through assassination. Afterwards, they will inevitably question my earlier proposal. While we can still move forward even if they completely disregard it, things would be a lot easier if they kept as close to it as possible. If they make a foolish plan that will only hinder themselves, let it happen. However, if it’s something that would succeed and greatly harm the world, please do your absolute best to try and convince them to give up on their plan in favor of mine.” _

_ Azula was already formulating how to do that. “I’ll have to make father think that you were completely loyal the whole time until you received some dream today that turned you traitorous…” Zuko gently ruffled Azula’s hair with a nod, approving of her tactics.* _

“Frosted shit on an altar…”

Ozai suddenly curses in such a truly bizarre way that it instantly snaps her back to the present. She would have to ask Uncle Iroh exactly how it happened later, but Zuko now stood over Zhong’s crumpled corpse. He was holding Zhong’s heart in his hand that was raised towards the Sun, an offering for Agni, before he set it aflame. It also caught Azula’s attention that Zhong’s crotch was a bloody mess with an unidentifiable object on the ground. She decided she would not ask about that bit.

The entire crowd was speechless, except for the Masters, who had abruptly stood just as the only attack was made. They were now flooding the arena with their applause for the apparent splendid display of skill and bending. Uncle Iroh would later regale the story of how some Masters can indeed see the inner fire’s embodiment while they were bombarding each other. Zuko was able to channel an unprecedented display of inner fire that enhanced and honed his very body, shooting him forward like lightning and tearing out Zhong’s heart within a split second. It would be something Masters would debate and try to replicate, with extremely little success, for decades.

Azula quickly stands up and begins clapping alongside the Masters. Ozai does the same. Within seconds, the entire arena erupts into cheering and applause. It was obvious everyone was pretending they knew what had just happened. As soon as Zhong’s heart was nothing but ash, Zuko knelt down to their father from the arena. Realizing what is about to happen, Azula stops clapping and subconsciously holds her breath. When Iroh looked to her, his face went from amazed to worried in the time it took her heart to beat once.

Everything happens so fast she cannot react, yet the scene plays out in front of her in torturous slow motion. Ozai gives Zuko permission to address his people as the crown heir. A smile creeps upon his face as he steps to the center of the Agni Kai arena and begins to talk about the war. He starts off by repeating the propaganda that they all know. Then he reveals the truth about what was happening in the world. He regales everyone about how Agni has turned his back on Ozai. There was a collective gasp when Zuko referred to their father and the Fire Lord as just Ozai in front of the hundreds of citizens present. Zuko continues with how Ozai is unworthy of the loyalty they are forced to give him.

“If it wasn’t for Avatar Kyoshi’s decree, we would have never descended into the monstrous murderers that Sozin, Azulon, and now Ozai are turning us into! We are not spreading our greatness to the other nations! There was never an army of Monks preparing to destroy us and they weren’t behind the hurricane that came and wiped out a lot of our ancestors!

“Agni SHOWED me how Sozin was a bloodthirsty warmongering fool filled with hate. How he twisted the message and let the storm take us by surprise to spur us to his horrid cause!!! The entire world HATES us!!! We have become monsters and murderers that only know how to destroy and kill!!! Fire is not only destruction; Fire is also Life!!!” Zuko continues on like this as he turns to face every person and tries to make the truth settle in. Ozai was absolutely furious, but for as long as Zuko talked, everyone was entranced with his words. ' _ They all likely feel terrible right now. They will undoubtedly want to just claim this horrible feeling is just a reaction to Zuko going treasonous.' _

As soon as the thought flashed in her mind, Zuko repeated those same words verbatim, while further elaborating on the thought. “But that horribleness you are feeling right now, the quiver in your fire as your very being feels like it is being called into question, the unsteady grounds you stand on, and the doubt that is plaguing you right now are the very signs proving that what I am saying is all the truth! FIRE IS LIFE!”

“I revoke all claims to the throne! By Agni’s Eternal Flame of Life I will never become Fire Lord or have anything to do with a nation so bent on destroying the world to ash and blood!” Fire around the stadium flares with a golden might as every Firebender feels Agni’s presence, accepting Zuko’s decree. Everyone feels the rumbling of their island’s giant volcano responding to his words and Agni’s acceptance. Azula watches as Zuko tears the flame crown, that object that signified his position as Crown Prince, from his hair and tosses it into the oncoming lightning strike. 

The crown is completely destroyed before Ozai’s lightning strikes straight through Zuko’s chest, bringing him to his knees, shooting out through his back and killing countless of guards that had run in to restrain an unresisting Zuko. He finishes saying his piece and lets the guards string him up, waiting for Ozai. Azula watches with trepidation as Ozai takes a metallic whip and tears apart Zuko’s back as he imbues the whip with heat and flame, striking Zuko again and again with lightning. Not a single cry escaped Zuko’s lips. He takes his torture as he stares down everyone present. He grimaces at the excruciating pain and lets Ozai prove his point for him, while maintaining absolute silence. 

The brutality continues for hours, much to everyones’ horror. Uncle Iroh has to hold Azula back from interfering and crying out, though both had torrents of tears streaming down their faces. They watch as Ozai takes his fire crown and superheats it. He charges it with all the electricity he can and heats it until it turns almost bright white. His eyes were seething with rage as he pressed the metal against the center of Zuko’s lower back, forever branding him with the insignia of the Fire Lord. Only then does Zuko release one single blood curdling scream, echoing with a dragon’s roar, that will terrorize everyones’ memories into their next life.

Azula knows that no matter what Ozai does and how hard he tries, he will never be able to stop this from spreading. The entirety of the Fire Nation, and the rest of the world will learn of the words spoken here today. Azula will make damn sure of it. She will secretly spread everything Zuko has said today to the entire world. Everyone far and wide will learn the fate of Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation.

' _ Ozai will pay for what he has done to my Zuzu!' _

-?-

Knock knock.

“Come in.” Ozai barks irritably. He blinks as he watches the girl kneel down before his desk and wait for permission to speak. “I did not call for you. Why are you here?” Spirits. Stupid, damned unscroupulous spirits were driving Ozai insane the last few days. They weren’t just weak spirits that the Fire Sages could get rid of with simple rights. No, these spirits were terrifying monstrous beings that have burned down most of the palace, and were wreaking havoc across the Fire Nation ever since  _ HE _ went traitor. Zuko had shocked him into oblivion with his actions that day. Ozai believed that Zuko finally became everything that he had ever wanted from his first born. Of course it all had to be too good to be true in the end. ' _ Or was it? Did these spirits have something to do with Zuko going traitorous?' _

“The Fire Sages requested I tell the Fire Lord that Zuko has not died despite never getting treated for his wounds, and no food or water for a week. He remains either awake or meditating through all of the torture he was put through in the Agni Kai field. The more powerful spirits have even taken to killing those who come to torture Zuko and are protecting him as he remains in his shackles.” Azula’s face shows no signs of worry or interest. She just dutifully gives the report.

“Head Fire Sage Hiroto suggests we take Zuko down to the Temple’s dungeons for imprisonment. He believes that will calm the spirits down. He seems to think that they are acting up because of what happened to him.” 

' _ Which would make a lot of sense if the spirits are behind Zuko turning traitor…' _ Ozai mulls this over, sipping at his sake in order to dull the pain of his migraine.

“Very well. Throw him in the Temple’s dungeons. If the spirits want him, they can frosted well have him. I don’t want him anywhere near here.” Azula bows low and starts to leave. She is closing the door behind her when Ozai stops her. “Azula, was your brother ever acting weird before that day?” Azula shakes her head, letting through a bit of her enraged emotion, at what exactly, Ozai was unable to tell.

“No father. Zuko was a true son of the Fire Nation. A paragon of Sozin’s blood. Especially when he had proposed his plan to the War Council, he was ever your son and my brother. But then…” Azula pauses as her face openly shows her infuriation. “...then the morning before the duel he said the spirits had given him a dream the night before. When I pressed him, he wouldn’t tell me what it was about. He seemed to be fighting it, but had lost control after killing Zhong…” ' _ IT WAS THE SPIRITS!!!' _ Ozai flips his desk over in a sudden bout of rage. He then began pacing and setting things aflame in his anger. 

“If I may, Father-Lord.” Ozai’s eyes widen as he hears Azula refer to him like Zuko had whenever he began acting like Sozin. Ozai halts his pacing and waves to the girl, crossing his arms and waits for her to continue. “I believe in my brother’s proposal that day at the War Council. I believe that we should accept his efforts and continue planning using his last pure gift to the Fire Nation and as one of Sozin’s bloodline before the spirits corrupted him. We should stick to his plan. With it, we will rule the world through the power of our fire. And when we succeed, our justice will be to see the Spirits’ turning Zuko insane to have all been for naught.”

Ozai’s eyes light up like he had been given the greatest gift ever. And he had. Zuko had provided the very key to Ozai’s dream of world conquest before the Spirits destroyed him. His loyal son would be remembered and alive in the succession of his plan. Ozai smiles at Azula. “Very good Azula. Thank you for reminding me of our great key to complete domination.”

“One more thing, Father. My brother’s plan to find and herd the Avatar… He said that he received reports of where the coward had been hiding for a hundred years. I wish to personally carry out this plan. I will bring Iroh, Ty Lee, Mai, and a crew Zuko had previously devised for that part of his plan to get in the Avatar’s way. He had reasoned the Avatar would be too powerful to capture, and killing him would be the last thing we should ever do. This is why the true Prince Zuko stressed the necessity of herding the Avatar so he doesn’t get the chance to settle down long enough to train. Zuko had believed that he and myself were the best ones to handle this while the others would be too incompetent.”

Ozai was enraptured with Azula’s words. She had told him the things Ozai wanted to hear, the most believable things, and the things Zuko wants Ozai to believe. Lucky for her, he was too far off his rocker to even think this was anything but words from a god… ' _ Oh Zuzu, you really have him wrapped around your finger. If only we could just deal with Ozai ourselves, but you are right. The world would never let us rest if we did it. Only their Avatar would be capable of keeping them from completely eradicating us.' _

“So, with your permission,  _ Father-Lord, _ ” Azula purposely twists Zuko’s favorite nickname in for optimal effect. “I request that I take up the torch of his divine gift and carry out this portion of the plan for Zuko and myself.” Azula reveals just enough attachment to her brother for Ozai to know her motive behind wanting to do this. She knows that Ozai would see this as her being forever loyal to the man that was the truly Sozin-like Prince Zuko. The very exemplar of everything Ozai always dreamed of wanting from his firstborn son.

“Go, carry out the plan as best you see fit. May you always carry the memory of the True Prince Zuko in your work.” Ozai watches Azula dutifully leave to carry out her mission. His migraine has finally backed off with the enlightenment Azula has granted him. Indeed, the entire Fire Nation will forever remember the True Prince Zuko as one of the greats, right alongside his Great Grandfather Sozin, and Grandfather Azulon. All of whom were great and extremely powerful men that always seemed to fall to regret or be beset by spirits. Ozai would pass a decree that every shrine to Agni will be updated. In every Fire Nation home’s shrine resides pictures of Sozin in the top right and Azulon in the top left. It will be changed to have Fire Lord Sozin in the top right, the True Prince Zuko in the top left, and Azulon in the bottom right, placing the memory of the Fire Nation’s True Prince immortally besides Fire Lord Sozin himself.

_ 'The boy will have to die though… Zuko, unfortunately you will have to become a martyr for your nation. May your death free you from the corruption of the spirits and place your great spirit right besides your great-grandfather Fire Lord Sozin. He would be ever so proud of the true you.' _

-?-

Azula was swiftly walking away from her father’s private office. She had watered the bud of Zuzu’s plan. Ozai was always a sick man, but who knew he would be so traumatized by what he had done to his own son that he would readily believe Spirits were at fault for Zuko going traitorous on him. She remembered how Ozai latched onto her subtle mention of the “True Prince Zuko” like a lifeboat...  _ 'Just what sort of sick, demented, fucked up family do we have? At least Zuko, Iroh, and myself are all normal.' _

She made her way to where her Uncle was staying, while thinking about Zuko and hoping he would be alright. She had actually given the Sages her immediate approval to take Zuko down. It really was lucky that Ozai approved that himself without any complications. She would love to go see Zuzu right now and make sure he was healing properly, but he had given her the signal to get the plan rolling when they took him to the Temple’s chamber.

_ 'Everything is going according to our plan Zuzu. Happy Sixteenth Birthday!' _

-?-

Zuko woke up to find himself in a rather comfortable chamber with twilight’s glow shining through the open windows. A young woman was taking care of him at the moment, wiping him off and treating his wounds from the torture.

“How bad is it?” He closed his eyes as he felt the searing feeling of fire from his back. It was like a constant itch that would occasionally flare up into a blinding pain. The young woman in Sage’s garb startles at his sudden words and starts fussing over him.

“Your Majesty! You are awake! How are you feeling? Is there anything that feels particularly worse than the rest? MIMI! Go get Grandfather!” He turns just in time to see a little girl, no more than six, start to run out the door only to run into an ancient looking man with golden eyes. He looked to be the Head Fire Sage, but he also seemed strangely familiar to Zuko in a non-human sort of way.

“You are not human are you, Fire Sage Hiroto?” Zuko managed to remember the name of the man from almost five years ago. He searches for the feeling of fire but can’t seem to feel any of it. It was like he was cut off from his fire. Zuko began to panic as he checked himself over. “Fire, my fire, I can’t feel any of it!” Fire Sage Hiroto gently places a veiny clawed hand over Zuko’s own clawed hand.

“It is alright. I swear this is not permanent. I fear that disobeying the Avatar’s decree, as well as the severe trauma you have gone through in the past week, has left you unable to access your firebending. However, it is still there. I promise you. I can feel your fire flare with your emotions, stronger than ever. You have been so incredibly brave. You heard the spirits and knew exactly what you had to do and did it with a bang, Prince Zuko.”

Zuko closed his eyes and took many calming breaths, trying to reign in his mind and remember the past. Slowly, but surely, the past four and a half years came flooding back to him from the night Orochi attacked all the way to the massive amount of torture he recently received. All of it, in complete and utterly vivid detail; feeling everything as if it was happening right now. Finally, Zuko takes one last steadying breath as his mind clears.

“I am no longer ‘Prince Zuko.’ No longer ‘Your Majesty.’ No longer ‘Zuko, son of Fire Lord Ozai and Ursa.’” One more deep breath. “That man is dead from now onwards. I am of Agni and Tui.” The Fire Sage bows his head respectfully, accepting Zuko’s claim.

“You may want to see about a way to cut yourself from the Fire Lord’s clan then, my dear boy.” The Sage steps closer and helps Zuko fully upright, supporting him firmly where Zuko’s body pulsed with blinding pain that catches his breath. “The bonds of a clan are not so easy to break. The Fire Lord, your sister, and your uncle will be able to tell that you are alive for as long as you remain a part of their clan. Generally, the only way to end your ties to a clan is to be disowned or to die. It seems that the Fire Lord is making no such moves to disown you, and would likely only see you dead. Though, as Agni accepted your abdication from the line to the throne, you may be able to receive his help in severing your ties to your clan. If you can do this, there would be no doubts about whether or not you had died, and they’d never look into it further. Such as how you felt about your late cousin’s, Prince Lu Ten’s, death; your removal from the clan would feel like undeniable death to those of your clan.”

Zuko nods solemnly, he could vividly remember the feeling of losing Lu Ten’s fire. How his presence in the sense of their clan had just seemed to break away, letting him know his cousin had died. Beforehand, Zuko had no idea about that sense of his clan, but he learned about it when asking his crying Mother about what he had felt. This is also the same reason he was sure that his Mother still lived. He never had that feeling of loss with his Mother, so she had to still be alive.

“Azula. I need to get a message to her, and there are some things I want to give to her before I leave.” He turns to Fire Sage Hiroto who nods and hands him some paper.

“We have paper for your note here, and anything you wish us to do, shall be done. I will stress that it is best for you to not enter the palace right now. It is far too dangerous. However, we are not loyal to Ozai. We serve Agni, and in turn, Agni’s son, you. We will do whatever you wish.” Fire Sage Hiroto kneels to the floor and professes his fealty.

“Very well. Thank you.” Zuko writes down a quick list and note for Azula. “The items on this list will be found in my room in the noted places. I want those items and this note placed on Azula’s bed for her to find. If she leaves before finding them, make sure they get to her immediately.” Hiroto bows and gives the note and list to another Sage that scurries off. Zuko looks out the window as he feels the moon rise. “Now, I have to go to the ocean. The quickest way possible. I do not have much time.”

Fire Sage Hiroto guides Zuko through the hallways of the Temple, gently helping him walk until he could gain enough strength to grit through his pain. Before leading him outside, however, Hiroto brings him to the main shrine. There, on a mannequin, sat a set of silvery-white light scaled armor, dual dao blades, and a mask of a dragon’s head that looked like it belonged with the armor.

“We had forged the remains of Orochi’s body into these items. I believed that you would eventually have need for them, so I kept them here for you. In the bag, you will find various little things such as hair ornaments, and other similarly useful items.” Zuko wordlessly steps up to it, starts donning the armor, and tests out the bone dao blades. It was perfect. It felt as natural as if they were extensions of his flesh and limbs, and it seemed like wearing the full set, with the mask angled to the side of his head, gave him further strength to ignore his wounds with a sort of familiar energy pulsating into him.

“Thank you. I greatly appreciate this. It feels so natural to be wearing this… I guess this truly is what I have become.”

-?-

Azula was swiftly making her way to her room when she saw a Fire Sage deftly step out of it. The elderly lady sees her and bows before walking away without a single explanation. Azula was on her way back from telling Uncle Iroh that he needed to get ready to depart. She didn’t tell him much besides Zuko had left her with a plan before his Agni Kai, and they needed to get as far away from the Fire Nation and Ozai if they were to have any chance of completing it.

Luckily, Uncle Iroh was in complete agreement with her. It was clear that he was distraught over losing Zuko on top of Lu Ten, but he seemed determined to get Azula away from her psychotic father by any means necessary. He was quite happy to see she had come to him about getting ready to leave by tomorrow. She had a feeling that Iroh may have even gone as far as to kidnap her had she chosen to resist leaving with him. It was a funny thought really, but she did feel bad about having to leave him in the dark about Zuko.

Azula rushes to her room after she watches the Fire Sage grandma lady leave without a word. Everything seems to be in order but a few things were left out on top of her bed. The Blue Spirit Mask that was his only belonging from their Mother. The fine quality Dao swords that Master Piandao had personally crafted and gifted to Zuko when he was judged to be a Master Swordsman. And a letter.

Her heart was in her throat as she tears open the letter and instantly recognizes Zuzu’s unique neat handwriting.

_ ╔ _

_ Dear Lala,  _

_ I apologize for not being able to meet you in person before I had to leave. I am alright. It definitely hurts like hell, but I will survive. _

_ Unfortunately, it was too dangerous for me to sneak into the palace, and I don’t have enough time to wait until after dark. _

_ The Fire Sages are covering my disappearance by saying that the spirits got to my cell and left nothing other than ash. So don’t be alarmed when you hear that Zuko is dead. This is how it has to be, and in some ways, Zuko, son of Fire Lord Ozai and Lady Ursa, is dead.  _

_ The items left on your bed are yours from now on. As I play the role of Orochi, it is only fitting that you play as the Blue Spirit. Never give up without a fight. _

_ I trust that you are getting ready to leave as soon as possible. Make sure that you leave with Uncle and never let Ozai get his hands on you again. If I find that he has started warping you again, I really will kill him despite how the world would react. _

_ Stay safe, take care of yourself, and I love you. _

_ Sincerely, Zuzu _

_ ╝ _

Azula read through the letter a hundred times. To the point that she could recite it word for word. She carefully folds up the letter and slips it into her under wrappings around her chest; conveniently placed right over her heart.

-?-

The sky became dark and the moon was full in the sky as Zuko began wading into the waves. He doesn’t worry over getting wet, or any of his new belongings getting wet either. It can all handle water, and it’s not like he had any food and papers. That said, the bag did seem to be waterproofed, made out of dragonhide.

The ocean laps calmly at his hips. He waits there for a moment and takes deep, calming breaths. He wasn’t quite sure how he was supposed to just let the ocean take him. Hopefully, not by drowning. He opens his eyes to see a misty white woman appear out of the moonlight. Her hair was a silvery white, like the light of a full moon illuminating a snowy plain, and she looked so beautiful. She seemed aged yet timeless, but her features were still stunning.

“Tui…” Her name falls naturally on his tongue as she smiles and reaches up to rest her hand gently on his cheek. It was like he was seeing Ursa again. Her kindness, and motherliness filled him to the brim as she instantly embraced him. The hug felt real but it still felt like she wasn’t actually there at the same time.

“Oh my dear, dear child. You have been so brave and strong for so long. I am sorry that you had to experience all the utterly horrid things you did.” Zuko embraces her back firmly, a feeling of safety fills him as they stand and tears crept out of his eyes. Unfortunately, it was not allowed to last. “You have made us so proud my dear child. The others have seen your actions and have begun to finally approve of you. They are still skeptical, but have agreed to give you a chance.”

“As you stand right now, you are still a demonic being. Your power and essence are still corrupted. But as you strive to restore the world, you will find ways to purify yourself so that you may finally stand beside us in your rightful place. For as long as you stay a demon, you are Orochi the Demon, but when you purge the corruption from your very being, you will be able to ascend into your true self. Taifume the Spirit, the tranquility at the center of storms. In due time, I know you will join us.” Zuko nods dutifully.

“I must make a request… Mother. I need to die. Rather, I need to appear dead.” Zuko quickly restates at Tui’s puzzled look. “I need to break off my ties to the Fire Lord’s Clan so they feel and truly believe I have died. Do you know how I can do that?”

Tui takes Zuko by the hand and guides him into the water. They travel further and further into the ocean as the islands disappear from sight. “There is a way, my son, but for a while it will douse your fire, making you unable to feel it.” Zuko is noticeably hesitant, but he quickly nods his head with determination. She smiles beautifully before pulling him into her embrace.

“I will douse you with water and snuff your fire. It may frighten you and will feel odd, but it will only be temporary. You are Agni’s child as much as mine. While Agni’s Fire can never be snuffed out, yours can, but never permanently. It will flare up again, stronger than ever, though it will take time. When you lose your Fire, you will find yourself drawing strength from your Water. Your spirit will lose the strength of your clan as the bond breaks with the snuffing of your flame, but I will strengthen your water to support your life, tying you to my Tribe and Family. You will be a part of our little Tribe. The Moon, the Ocean, and yourself, my son. La is what humans would call your step-father. As well as your Godfather, since he is the one who helped sanction and bless your birth.” Tui shakes her head from side to side. It struck Zuko with how human she acts, and in how she expresses herself. Though, he realizes, it is likely the humans that take after the Great Spirits as opposed to the other way around.

“Take this time to master your waterbending while your fire heals. Then, in due time, your Fire will spark again. I suspect it will be uncontrollable for a time while it stabilizes and grows to its new strength that is no longer bound by human limitations. Eventually you will get past that phase and be able to bend Fire and Water together seamlessly.” Zuko mumbles his understanding, not bothering to withdraw from her arms as he listens to her words. “Are you ready?”

To this, Zuko finally looks up and maintains eye contact with Tui. He briefly wonders if there was ever anyone else that had the privilege of being held and mothered by a Great Spirit such as the Moon herself, but he nods with her borrowed confidence. Light radiates out from Tui where she holds him and the ocean swells up around them and arcs overhead in great streams. The light of the Moon seeps into the water and makes it glow. She then gently gathers Zuko into her arms, surprising him, as he once again feels like a child in his mother’s arms. Warm, safe, happy, and comforted. The presence of the light seems to strengthen the embodiment of Tui, solidifying her, as she holds Zuko under his neck and knees. She carefully dips him into the silvery glowing water, which makes a complete perfect circle in the ocean while the Moon’s light shone a single beam onto the circle.

Zuko feels like he is being baptized as Tui lowers and sinks him completely into the silver water. He feels the water enter into every cell of his body and even into his very spirit. With this sensation, Zuko’s fire goes out. As it does, he feels like he has lost all of his family at once. Ozai disappears first, then Uncle Iroh, then Ursa, and Azula. Next, to his amazement, he feels himself cut off from the entire Fire Nation itself. A bond that he had no idea existed, yet it made sense how the Fire Lord is the ruler of all Clans, combining them into one. For a moment Zuko is filled with fear and loneliness. He also felt oh so cold. Firebenders always had a supernatural heat to them that would freak out the rest of the world, but now that was gone. The feeling of being truly alone in the world is insanely terrifying and smothering in a feeling of weakness. However, it did not last long.

Soon, Zuko feels a sense of home and community ebb into his heart. Like a rising tide that is threatening to drown him. But, when he felt as if he might drown, he began to feel whole. Like he was safe and complete in the embrace of his family. He is of water and water is him. His family, his Tribe, is small, but all felt right. He could feel the love and warmth coming from the figure cradling him. He turns to this center of comfort and love, craving that connection that strengthens him out of the feeling of death that crept over him, healing him.

Tui turns him to face her, running her fingers soothingly through Zuko’s silver hair, the black dye having been completely washed away, as they slowly circle around in the calm waves. “You, my son, from now on may you be known to the mortals as Zuko of the Spirit Tribe. Our Tribe and Family, as you can surely feel it, consists of you, your Step-father La, and myself. It is small, and will hopefully grow when you find a lover to bring into our family, but this is who we are.”

_ End of Chapter 4 _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for waiting. Without further ado I present chapter 4.
> 
> It makes me ecstatic to see your reactions. Please feel free to let us know what you think.
> 
> As a note, my beta is going to be moving soon, so we will be on hold for a month before chapter 5 comes, because life is stressful and I wish not to overwork my friend with continuous editing. Once they are settled in, we will continue to post chapters every other week and maybe faster for the foreseeable future. We greatly appreciate your patience and understanding.
> 
> -?-
> 
> So, I have it already stated that the only ways to break a firebender’s bonds of clan, as clan and loyalty are their lifelines, are through death and being disowned/cast out by the clan leader. Either of these would break the bonds to each other rooted in their very Spirit. Being disowned is like saying "you are dead to us." Otherwise, if everyone knows that never happened, then when someone dies it would feel like that person's connection to the rest of their clan has broken off from the rest of them. It's how the siblings know Ursa isn't dead, and why Iroh didn't force his way into the wall of Ba Sing Se because he already knew for sure. And so, with Tui (the Moon) dousing Zuko’s fire, she temporarily kills him and this breaks the bond to his clan (Ozai, Iroh, Ursa, and Azula. As well as the bond to the rest of the Fire Nation). With this, there is absolutely no doubt that Prince Zuko is dead, so even if they see him and realize it is him, they would sooner think it is his spirit haunting the world rather than him being alive.
> 
> About the "Spirit Tribe". Normally the Moon (Tui) and Ocean (La) have always been. There has never been a need for them to form a Tribe, that is generally a human thing. But with the addition of claiming Zuko as her son, Tui declares Zuko, La, and herself a family and Tribe by human customs and dubs them the Spirit Tribe. It may also seem weird that Tui actually claims Zuko as her child, as well as a bit confusing when she mentions being brave for so long and the circumstances of his birth (La being his Godfather and sanctioning his birth and all), but this is because Spirits see the Spirit of the living rather than the flesh. The night Orochi attacked, as Orochi is indeed the child of Tui (Moon) and Agni (Sun), Zuko’s and Orochi’s body and Spirits have completely merged into one being, erasing Orochi’s consciousness and memory, leaving only Zuko’s. This means that Zuko has indeed become the Son of Tui (Moon) and Step-son of La (Ocean). This will be interesting when Yue becomes the moon. While Waterbenders would probably kill and do anything to be a part of the newly dubbed Spirit Tribe, as it would be paramount to being related to their gods (the ocean and moon), Zuko’s introduction as "Zuko of the Spirit Tribe" will mostly be met with confusion from humans as none of them know of any tribe named as such.


	5. Omashu

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gaang makes their way to Omashu and events occur due to the ripples of change that have started.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Current formatting rules for AO3:  
> “Blablabla...yady yada...dialog”  
> ‘Are for active thoughts such as: Did father really intend to do that?’  
> *Are to be used for flashbacks*  
> {\ To be used for special images that are shared? /}
> 
> Hello everyone. With this chapter we are back. I am terribly sorry for the long wait, but I hope that it will be worth it as Chapter 5 has now been finished editing.
> 
> Happy New Years to you all, and I hope you enjoy.  
> -Kaine

“MY CABBAGES!!! YOU WILL PAY FOR THAT!!!”

Katara picks herself up out of the heap that was all piled on top of Sokka. She felt bruised all over. She internally cursed Aang for their current situation. He had convinced Sokka and her to go down the mail chute like a slide. Apparently, a century ago, Aang and his good friend, Bumi, would ride these exact mail chutes for fun. Aang rattled on about how much fun it was and Katara could not deny that it was. She found it both exhilarating and scary simultaneously. She felt her heart pounding in her chest during the ride and even after the crash landing they just made. And from the groans of her traveling companions, Katara was happy that everyone was still alive, though the extent of their injuries still remained unknown. She made her way down the pile of cabbages and the demolished stall while the older merchant screamed his cabbage hat off. She accidentally squashed some cabbages as she stumbled down the mound to the stable ground.

“GAH! WHY YOU LITTLE CABBAGE DESTROYING WENCH!!! I’LL HAVE YOUR HEAD FOR THAT!!!”

Katara could barely pick out the words he was saying, they had barely been in the Earth Kingdom for two weeks, most of which was spent flying on Appa. The first glaring issue was the language barrier when they were trying to buy supplies. Sokka and Katara had never learned the language of the Earth Kingdom- Zhongwen- while growing up. Every time they traded with merchants they would use Dzongkha, the common language used across the world, as well as the native tongue of the Airbenders. This is how they were able to communicate with Aang, granted there are still times when they struggled to understand each other. Though, Aang speaks really weirdly, even for the Dzongkha that Katara knows, it sounds like Aang is speaking an old tongue… ‘ _But, if you consider how Aang has been frozen in an iceberg for about 100 years, it is likely his way is how they spoke way back when… Still confusing though.’_

Aang’s dialect wasn’t just confusing to her and Sokka, it was also difficult for others to understand him. There were even a few instances where merchants would not sell items to them because they just could not understand Aang’s dialect. Add to that, only the most well-to-do merchants were those who were fluent in Dzongkha and traveling life became even more difficult. There might be a few fluent speakers here and there among the common folk, but, as far as Katara could tell, they were still quite rare. These struggles have made Katara make an oath to learn and become fluent in Zhongwen. Especially since she discovered Aang only knows his native tongue and not a lick of any other language.

_*Aang shrugs nonchalantly as he leads Appa by the reins through a wisp of clouds with giddy laughter. “Monk Gyatso never really bothered to teach me the other languages. We would reason that we have it easy because the rest of the world has learned our tongue, so we could go anywhere and be able to communicate. Instead, we focused on other things.”*_

It had taken Aang a few days to be willing to talk about his mentor without crying, but when he had calmed down he was happy to answer any of Katara’s curious questions about what it was like living in the Air Temples. Gyatso’s reasoning for not teaching Aang to speak the other languages made some sense to her, so she didn’t fault him. Luckily, Katara seemed to have a knack for it, whereas Sokka has barely even learned to say hello. It is thanks to this that Katara was able to pick out anything after only a week of learning from the people they met on the way.

While she couldn’t quite figure out what the old Earth Kingdom man was saying, she could easily understand that he was angry when he reared his hand back to hit her with all of his strength. She flinched and waited for the strike to come, but it never did. Instead, he was caught at the wrist by a man with a large round pointed shield-like hat and a rather fine green robe, complete with dark arm wraps. The new figure had appeared suddenly and startled her, but Katara couldn’t help but focus on his appearance, as it stood out to her in a striking manner. The man has silvery-white hair peeking out from his hat, tied back in a long braid, a sword at his back, and a large waterskin that seemed to hang on the back of his hip.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” Katara could hear a quiet threateningly stern voice come from him. Once again she cursed herself for her lack of knowledge in other languages, but she decided to focus on the confusingly young sounding voice coming from the new man. “Guards.” This was a word she could guess the meaning of, somewhat glad the guards stepped forward and proved her thoughts right. The guards that were with the man came forward to arrest them, placing Aang, Sokka, and herself in stone cuffs.

 _‘Well… Of course Aang’s stories never told about the consequences of using the mail chutes as a slide.’_ Katara instantly regretted the decision to go along with Aang’s “fun” activities. That said, she couldn’t really help it. She knew that there is so much pressing down on her young friend. He is the Avatar and feels responsible for the war and the state of the whole world, but Katara knew that he was not at fault. _‘Damn Fire Nation. Only they could do something so horrible as wiping out an entire people, leaving Aang alone and the last of his kind. Let alone destroy the world… and take my Mother away.’_ She had to do something to help him cheer up. It always broke her heart to see Aang look all sad and alone.

Katara shook her head as she sped up to walk beside Aang. He looks rather anxious as they were led somewhere. Katara felt pride that Aang was still keeping to their agreement that he should keep his airbending hidden. They didn’t want to draw attention to themselves as the Avatar and his companions. They really had no idea where the Fire Nation would pop up, or if they would come to attack Omashu because they were here. Aang chatted away all happily and energetically with their escorts and Sokka.

Katara wasn’t really paying attention. It helps that she can tune out other languages when she wants to. She may be good at learning them, but she still has to actively think about what is being said. When she retreats into her own head, it becomes exceedingly easy to ignore anything that is being said like the squawking of penguin-otters. She was busy watching the mysterious guy. His long white hair braided down his broad muscular shoulders and back that shone like silver as it swayed back and forth over his slightly curved sword. At the end of his hair was a very shiny knife blade looking thing that looks like it is either made out of glass or ice, and about as long as her forearm. Around where the blade swayed at the end of his braid is a large leather pouch that seemed like it would either carry most of her belongings or a bath’s worth of water. Looking further, Katara spots a firmly round muscular butt that seems to stick out towards her. His clothes seem like they were made for a delicate noble his height, a height that seems about the same as Sokka, but were not made to fit a strong muscular figure, which made them fit a bit snugly on him.

Katara decides that this mysterious man has to be a young adult in his early twenties at the latest. Though his height suggests he may be closer to Sokka’s age. This decision eases her dilemma a bit as she walks behind the mysterious man the whole way to the palace, not bothering to take her eyes off of him. At some point Sokka coughs awkwardly and nudges her with his shoulder before giving her a pointed look. Her cheeks turn pink and tries to not stare at the guy in front of her, but her resolve did not last for long.

-?-

“OFF WITH THEIR HEADS! ONE FOR EACH HEAD OF CABBAGE!!!”

 _‘Jeesh! What is Cabbage Guy’s deal? And… who is this younger guy? He keeps watching us like he is assessing us…’_ Katara stood to the side of her brother with Aang standing protectively behind the both of them. Luckily, Katara got to see the mystery guy take off his hat before the king and prove that he was indeed only a couple years older than her. That was an awkward moment that luckily passed without incident. Now, however, the boy was watching them silently from off to the King’s side like a guard. Katara goes pink again as she sees him looking over her. _‘Did he know I was drool-star-w-watching? That’s right, I was only watching him.’_ She goes even redder as he raises an eyebrow at her shy finicking beneath his eyes.

Katara found herself too preoccupied again to pay attention to what was going on. This King was a very old man that did not seem to have his crown on right. Instead, she was busy watching the boy from under her eyelashes. Not daring to look at him directly. More than a few times, Sokka would try to discreetly nudge her but his attempts were in vain. “We’ll throw them… A Feast!”

This got her attention. It definitely helps that the King had taken up speaking Dzongkha rather than his native tongue. Katara suspected he did it on purpose. Like he expected they wouldn’t know Zhongwen. As much as she didn’t want to have to admit it, she was grateful for the consideration. _‘This old nutcracker, I mean elder, is going to throw us a feast? And is Silver chuckling to himself? Kinda cute…’_ Katara nicknamed the boy Silver as he shook with an amused grin before regaining his perfectly poised posture. Everyone else, Sokka and Aang included, are all baffled by the King of Omashu. Even the Cabbage Guy reacted the same way.

Though, as she is led by Silver to the dining room, with the King cracking all sorts of Old Man Puns, she admits the Cabbage Guy was likely more dismayed at their lack of punishment. Not that Katara bothered to watch the guards escort the man out; she was currently occupied watching where their escort was leading them. As they walked through the Earth King’s palace, Katara shifted focusing on three different things. She found herself scoffing at the over abundance and grandeur of the palace. _‘HA! Our Chiefs don’t have any need to put on such a display. We’d rather share with our community and all be on equal footing rather than overcompensate like some King.’_ But she still found herself captivated by the level of wealth and prosperity. While she was proud to be the daughter of Chief Hakoda of the Southern Water Tribe, she still wouldn’t mind being able to enjoy some luxury… And then she goes back to admiring her fine specimen, Silver, as he led the way to the ginormous dining hall.

-?-

The feast that was prepared turned out to be pretty grand. Katara found herself fairly shy despite her ravishing hunger. This was the greatest splay of food she has ever seen. Katara could bet that Sokka is foaming at the mouth with all of the meat present. They each have a rooster pig drum leg on their plate with most of the food a bit out of reach. _‘I hope there is something for Aang to eat, there sure is a lot of meat here.’_ She looks over Aang’s head to her foolish brother Sokka, their eye contact asking whether they were allowed to start eating despite the crazy King chuckling from behind their seats. Momo had no problem gorging on the nuts though.

“Hehehe. The people of my city have gotten fat from too many feasts. So, I hope you like your drum with no skin.” The King shifts creepily from behind their seats before picking up Aang’s drum and waving it in front of his face.

“Thanks, but I don’t eat meat.” Aang shrugs politely, even if he is visibly cringing back against his chair away from the meat. _‘Well… At least he didn’t start lecturing the King about how great it is to be a vegetarian and how it is wrong to eat meat…’_ Katara thinks appreciatively. That was not a fun conversation to have with Aang about why they had no wish to become vegetarians.

“How about you? I bet you like meat.” The King shifts over closer to Sokka before jamming the drum into his mouth. Sokka was startled at first, but then he gave in and started enjoying the food. The King chuckles again as he makes his way to the other end of the four meter long stone table with a green tablecloth from one end to the other. Sokka takes a cue from Momo and begins stuffing his face without a care. Katara turns to Aang and smirks with a quiet whisper.

“Is it just me, or is this guy’s crown a little crooked?” Katara makes a loopy swirling motion to the side of her head to show she means crazy.

“So tell me, young bald one.” The King sits down all the way in his chair, like an old man easing himself on creaky bones. Sokka has gotten up from his seat to pile a mountain of food from various places on the table. Katara finds herself too nervous and uncomfortable in such a regal dining room, being in front of the King as he continues to talk also makes her feel like it wasn’t right to dig in. “Where are you from?” Aang blanks for a second as Katara glances at him to see the lie formulating in his head.

“I’m from… Kangaroo Island.” Aang spits out a seemingly made up place with a strained smile. _‘Kangaroo Island? Is that actually a name for a place?’_ Katara remembers how Aang would talk about all the different places he used to go to with Monk Gyatso. It helped pass the time in Appa’s saddle with Aang talking about all sorts of amazing places. Katara couldn’t imagine what it would be like to travel all over the world like that. _‘Though I guess that is what we are doing now, huh?’_

“Kangaroo Island eh…? I hear that place is really HOPPIN’!” The King shifts in his chair to angle his shoulder and side of his face towards the Gaang to emphasize the delivery of his punch line. The room stays quiet for a moment and Katara could even hear one of the guards cough. Sokka continues stuffing his face, Aang just looks at him like a blank ten-year-old kid, and Katara just looks at the King with an unamused face.

“Ahahaha! Ahahaha!!! Huuuh…” Sokka shakes in full body laughter, causing Aang to turn to look at him. _‘Of course it is SOKKA… Only he could enjoy a lame joke like that…’_ Katara smirks amusedly as her brother starts choking on the food in his throat. Aang gives him a quick hard pat on the back to help him cough the food back up. His choking stops, but rather than leaving the coughed up food on his plate, he scarfs it back down and swallows fully before turning back to Aang and Katara with a shrug. “What? It was pretty funny…” The King stretches in a wide yawn.

“Well… All these good jokes are making me tired.” The King feigns getting up as Katara notices him suspiciously reaching into his sleeve. “I guess it’s time to hit the hay.” Katara reaches for the water and flings it at the King as fast as she can just as the old nut throws a drum of meat at Aang. Her water never hits its target and Aang stops the drumstick with a whirl of air and a look of absolute disgust and horror at the thought of even touching meat. The King continues to go on about the Airbending Avatar in their midst, but Katara doesn’t pay attention anymore. She doesn’t hear Aang talk about doing his Avatar duty, and there are no Firebenders here over the pounding of blood in her ears. Even as Sokka and Aang look up behind them as the guards block their path with spears goes unnoticed.

All Katara can do as she absentmindedly lets herself be led backwards by Aang is to stare at the mystery silver haired boy. She replays the scene of the boy stepping forward and raising his hand out towards the water Katara had flung at the King. The water froze and the sudden change threw her off and she lost control over it. He then proceeds to guide the ice to the jug that she initially drew the water from. _‘He’s a Waterbender just like me! And he seems to know what he is doing.’_

“...three deadly challenges.” Katara snaps back to attention at the word deadly, berating herself for getting too distracted to pay attention to the important things being said. Silver stands calmly to the side and drinks something from a smaller waterskin as the King speaks. Aang, Sokka, and herself are now backed up with some guards blocking the doorway with their spears menacingly.

“What? But she is JUST a GIRL! I am a man of the Southern Water Tribe, and it is my duty to protect her. I will take her place.” As much as Katara loves her brother, she wanted so much to walk up to him and slap him into next week. He meant well, but his bouts of sexism infuriated her to no end. _‘You would think that Gran Gran and I raised him better… Sokka, we will have words later!’_

“No. She will be the one to complete the challenges. She was the one so quick to fight, and normally attacking the King ends in the death penalty.” Katara slaps herself mentally for her earlier reaction. Sure, it was in reaction to the crazy King attacking Aang with meat, but he was right. Having to complete these challenges is far better than being killed.

"He's right, Sokka. I can and WILL accept these challenges! So get your head out of your sexist arse and stop saying I can't do something just because I am a girl. I can handle this." Katara momentarily finishes berating her brother. She sees Sokka slowly gulp with uncertainty in his eyes, but he seems to know what is coming for him next time she gets a moment to talk with him.

-?-

Aang gives up trying to push Momo into the air vent to find Appa, leaving the fattened lemur to vainly struggle out of the hole in the wall. The young Avatar jumps down from the chair and floats down like a feather with only an effortless outstretch of his skinny arms.

“Come on Aang, it’s best if we save our energy for tomorrow.” Katara proposes to her young friend as Sokka climbs into the sheets of his bed from his food coma. Just as Katara is about to slide into her own bed, one of the walls opens up and the older boy with silvery white hair comes walking in with a cart of plates and bowls. He looks up to see Katara and Aang getting into bed then scratches the back of his head shyly.

“Yeah, I probably would have done the same thing.” He lets out quietly in his soft raspy and somewhat deep voice. Katara mentally notes that it’s a rather gentle voice and pleasant to listen to. Sokka wakes up at the smell of food, and Aang perks up hopefully yet cautiously. “I noticed that the older boy ate his fill, but the two of you hadn’t eaten anything. So, I asked if I should bring some food to you. Especially for you,” Silver looks straight at Katara and nods, “who will be doing the challenges tomorrow. You’ll need your strength and energy for your bending.”

Katara gets up from her bed and readily makes her way to the cart and stands next to Aang. She would gladly eat the food. Main reason she decided to sleep despite the early hour was so she could ignore her unbearable hunger. She was shocked to see the array of food prepared for them. Soft white rice, cooked vegetables in a sort of sauce, a beautifully enticing fish, tofu for Aang, and some steaming tea. Sokka sniffs over the cart drooling before shaking his head and crossing his arms.

“Oh yeah? And how do we know the food isn’t poisoned?” Sokka asks in their native tongue, Inuktitut. “What my brother means to say is,” Katara is somewhat grateful that Sokka’s rudeness wasn’t in the world’s common language as she starts to translate, but she stops short in shock as Silver responds.

“I wouldn’t bother to poison your food. One, I had asked the King if I should feed you three, so if you were poisoned it would fall right on my head. Two, if the King wanted you dead, he would have just crushed you in the earth. Three, I cooked the food myself. So, I know for a fact that no one had a chance to poison it.”

Katara and Sokka stand in shock as the boy continues to portion out the food onto two plates and bowls. He had given Aang his set of veggies, rice and tofu before setting up the other half of the veggies over rice with the plate of fish towards Katara. Aang shrugs uninterestedly as he happily takes his food and tea back to his bed. Silver was busy pouring Katara tea as she recovered and accepted the offered food. Silver’s Inuktitut was heavily accented, but beyond that it was flawless. She remembers how the boy waterbended earlier, and once again wonders just who is this boy, who, at most, is only a couple years older than her.

Sokka looks dumbly at Silver, not even bothering to notice the tea that was poured for him sitting on the cart. Silver steps back looking at the siblings, who had yet to respond, and shrugs. Then he looks up behind Katara with a startled expression. He tilts his head confusedly while crossing his arms. He just shakes his head and walks to the wall where Momo was still hanging limply from the too small air vent hole. Kicking an ottoman up to the wall below smoothly, he hops onto it and gently pulls Momo out of the vent before soothingly petting the frightened lemur.

Katara smiles as she sees their tiny friend instantly warm up to the older boy, chirping happily and racing his way around Silver’s torso to perch on his shoulder. His emotions stay mostly in check, but Katara warms unexpectedly at the slight smile that graces the boy’s lips. Silver walks back over to the wall he came from and knocks loudly. “Alright, I should get going. I hope you enjoy your food. See ya buddy…” Silver coos the last sentence to Momo before giving it a gentle nudge off his shoulder as the wall opens up. Momo happily does a quick loop around the boy before twirling through the air to land on Aang’s shoulder who looks up and waves, a mouth stuffed with food.

The wall closes behind him and Sokka turns to the cart dejectedly, seeing that there is no food left for him. He sighs dramatically, but grabs his cup of tea before heading to his bed. Katara shakes her head at her brother’s piggish theatrics before taking a tentative bite into her food. The first bite surprises her. She screams when she nearly knocks her food off her lap, and quickly sets it down besides her safely on the bed. A few more bites has her moaning in delight. Sokka looks at her suspiciously.

“Now you are just teasing me.” He whines while staring longingly at Katara’s food.

“No. It’s just that good. I have got to ask him how he made this.” Katara instinctively hides her food protectively behind her, not wanting to share a single bite with Sokka.

“Yeah, no kidding! It’s as good as Katara’s amazing cooking!” Aang is now laying in the bed on his back, patting his slightly protruding belly in content. Momo licks the empty bowl and plate for any remaining crumb.

“Well it’s not very manly.” Sokka huffs as he climbs back into the sheets of his bed. Katara rolls her eyes at him but is too busy scarfing down her food. Not only was she starving, but she enjoys the food while daydreaming about her mysterious Silver. _‘Oh he is definitely better than just manly alright.’_ Katara licks her empty bowl and plate sadly before setting them both back on the cart and finally sipping her tea. She had never really been one to find what was so enjoyable about drinking tea, but she couldn’t get enough of this. Katara looks around at her friend and brother as they curl up in their beds before she grabs the whole teapot and hoards it for herself.

Katara sighs dreamily while continuing her thought. _‘Not only is he a waterbender like me, but he actually knows how to cook good food, and he can make me really enjoy tea… He’s really hot and fit. He’s… He is what I would consider dreamy husband material.’_ Katara continues on for a while, laying on her back in bed and pondering her first real crush until she falls asleep.

-?-

The next morning had been worrisome as Katara woke up alone in the “refurbished chamber that was once bad,” with Aang and Sokka nowhere to be found. Just as Katara finished strapping her waterskin to her hip, a wall opened up with a guard waiting for her. He brought her to a balcony of a huge cave-like room with hundreds of stalactites and stalagmites scattered across the ginormous cavern. In the center is a huge torrential waterfall pouring onto the stalagmites below.

Katara had been busy listening to the King and Aang talking. The freaky creeping crystal was slowly growing along her brother’s hand as he fiddles with it. At first Katara just feels a bit wet, assuming that it is from the mist of the waterfall, she just wipes it away and continues listening. The next moment Katara feels a sharp sting on her ass that makes her jump and cover her mouth so she doesn't scream. She turns to look down the hallway where there are guards standing impassively the same as she last saw them when another sting hits her ass more persistently this time.

Katara turns to the cavern and sees a string of water start receding as SIlver twirls the water back around his hand. She watches, the King and her companions forgotten, as the boy jumps athletically between stalagmites towards the waterfall. Once there, he starts jumping upwards and dives into the water like a sword-eel. Katara realizes that he is using his waterbending to effortlessly swim up the strong current and grab onto the metal grate at the beginning of the waterfall before tying a long chain with a key at the end.

 _‘Did he really whip my ass in order to show me that?’_ Katara rubs the stinging wetness on her ass cheek, where the water whip had hit her, as Silver effortlessly dives back down through the waterfall and uses the frightening momentum to quickly bounce his way back onto the platform and stand by the guards with a simple nod of his head to her. _‘I really need to learn how to do that!’_ Katara blushes slightly before her brother’s fidgeting catches her eye. _‘That could be useful for making Sokka move faster when he gets up in the morning.’_ Katara smiles mischievously at her brother who suddenly shivers and looks worried before turning to her all afraid.

“It seems that I have lost my lunchbox key and I am hungry. Would you fetch it for me?” The King points to the key in the middle of the waterfall. Katara takes a deep breath before climbing over the railing and carefully jumping and grabbing onto a big stalagmite. Katara struggles at first as she jumps from stalagmite to stalagmite, scrambling to latch on before she slips and impales herself on a point below her.

 _‘Damn, Silver had made this look so easy!’_ Katara stops moving and looks around the cavern for an easier way to the waterfall when she finally spots a cluster of stalagmites forming a nice little path straight to halfway up the waterfall. _‘If I can get my timing right I should be able to do it. And I have already used my bending to help me swim back at Kyoshi Island. I should be able to do this, just have to grab hold of the water as soon as I get in before it grabs hold of me…’_

Katara takes a few steadying breaths to clear her mind and ready her body. She preps her position and props her legs below her, readying to kick off as soon as she was ready. Her first few hops were sloppy and nearly messing up, but she pushed on through till she found her rhythm. “Oooh… Swimming up the waterfall, nobody has ever tried that before.” The King quips to the spectators, but Katara was too busy concentrating to hear him.

Soon she was diving headfirst up into the waterfall, reaching for the push and pull of the water before she even got wet. Swimming to the top of the waterfall actually turned out to be a piece of cake. With a quick slash and grab of the chain just above the key, she quickly and confidently made her way back the way she came and effortlessly up onto the balcony where she presented the key to the King with a dramatic flourish.

Katara was beaming proudly as Aang and Sokka recovered from their shock and rushed to congratulate her with the crystal creeping up their forearms. The King looks at Katara very impressively. “Good job, Lady Katara. I didn’t think you would manage it so easily.”

Katara smiles broadly with her achievement and adrenaline pumping strongly through her veins. She spots Silver nodding approvingly, leaned up against a pillar, before he makes eye contact with her, swiftly giving her a small smile before turning to leave down the hallway.

-?-

The King now wants Katara to find his pet Flopsie. _‘I really shouldn’t be so surprised that the crazy King’s challenges are so outlandish.’_ Katara is currently walking through a tunnel going down into the arena/habitat area. There were green crystals spread out along the passage, giving her a really dim light to see where she was going. As she reaches the end, she is startled by seeing Silver suddenly enter the tunnel from the end that she was heading towards.

In a split moment, the boy looks up at her and closes the last few steps between them before grabbing her hands and pushing Katara up against the wall. He holds her there for a moment with his thigh wedged up against her hip, his torso firmly leaning against her chest, and his big hands strongly restraining Katara’s above her head against the wall.

She had been too startled to resist, and now Katara is too flustered to do anything other than feel his warmth, pulse, and breath wave up upon her. His body warmed her in the chilly cave, while his pulse seemed to pump just as sporadically as her own heart at the moment. His hot breath tickles along her neck and shoulder as he shakes his head, kind of nuzzling into the crook of Katara’s shoulder. “The King’s crown isn’t on straight…” His raspy voice lets out, sending shivers down her spine with his breath.

She takes this moment to confirm that her mystery boy is indeed solidly chiseled as his muscles are pressed intimately upon her body. He is too close for her to see his face, so she instead stares at the strong definition of his jaw and the thick neck that leads into muscular shoulders. She takes a deep breath and breathes in his scent that reminds her of warm spiced smoked wood from their meat huts and the taste of furious ocean storms. Her mouth unwillingly waters at his enticing scent, silently leaning further into him.

This seems to snap him out of whatever trance he was in as he suddenly looks into Katara’s eyes, looking shocked with himself, yet still holding her firmly between his body and the wall. Katara becomes mesmerized with the rich golden eyes that seemed to glow and flicker like flames in the dark. She tilts her head to the side, curious about his surprised silence, too distracted for her to even remember she should probably push him off of herself. Her hair shifts with her head, giving the boy a good whiff of her slightly floral and minty sweet scent mixed with a calm salty breeze on ice.

Katara watches his nostrils flare up as he sharply intakes a breath. His golden eyes staring into her own blue seem to dilate into big dark orbs with rings of gold like an eclipse as his body stiffens and presses more strongly against her. He leans in closer for a moment as their noses almost touch, his pupils wide and a soft rumbling growl ripples through his throat and chest, revibrating within Katara. She catches him glancing down at her full lips, leaning in a bit closer. Glancing at the handsome boy’s own lips, Katara’s heart pounds in her throat, wondering if she is about to be kissed. Part of her was screaming and asking herself what she was doing, but another part, the one that won, was cooing for her to calm down and let it happen, enjoying the strangely intense moment.

The boy shakes his head a moment and blinks, his eyes retracting back to normal. He leans in towards her right ear and whispers to her in Inuktitut, “The rabbit is just food, not the pet.” And as suddenly as he was upon her, he was gone. Suddenly leaving Katara to shiver at the saddening loss of warmth. She turns her head to see the boy quickly make his way down the tunnel that she came without looking back. Her arms slowly sliding back down to her sides.

 _‘W-well… That was definitely… o-odd…’_ Katara couldn’t help but feel a bit disappointed that she hadn’t been kissed. _‘Why the hell was I hoping he would kiss me? I don’t even know his name for Tui’s sake!’_ As much as her common sense could reason for her, she still felt like something had buried itself in her chest. A little ember just smoldering with a dim, almost nonexistent warmth, but it was there. Katara shakes her head in confusion as she turns her way back to the mouth of the tunnel, entrance of the pit. _‘What did he mean by that?’_

Katara walks into the bright habitat pit and spots a small and adorable Loop-eared Rabbit sitting on a boulder in the center of the arena. Katara walks up calmly and soothingly towards the cute creature and it jumps into her arms willingly for her to pet. _‘Well… I guess this is the rabbit that Silver was talking about…’_ Katara looks around but doesn’t see anything else in the pit so she calls out the name while absentmindedly petting the creature in her arms.

“Flopsie! Flopsie! Where are you?” The King raised an eyebrow in surprise. _‘This girl is definitely a very astute person.’_ Aang and Sokka were confused as all hell and trying to scream at Katara that Flopsie was right in her arms. The loud yelling of the pet’s name didn’t take long to get its attention. Soon enough the ground was shaking and a huge beastly looking creature made a swing from somewhere above into the pit. The boys go silent with shock as Katara stares wide-eyed at the Goat-Gorilla standing before her with its tail wagging like mad before her. “Flopsie? Is that you?” Katara croaks out uncertainty until it happily licks her face.

Katara starts giggling and reaches a hand to pet the passive forearm of the creature before her. Just then, it uses one of its massive hands to grab the Loop-eared Rabbit in Katara’s arms up by its long ears and tosses the tiny creature into its mouth, swiftly cutting off a terrified shriek. Flopsie munches and swallows happily before nuzzling its snout against a petrified Katara.

-?-

“Your final test is a duel. And, as a special treat, you may choose your opponent.” At this moment two very intimidating looking men came up to either side of the King and stared down at her. One was shorter and slimmer, giving Katara a leering look that sent disgusting shivers through her spine. The second was huge and domineering, just staring down at her like she was nothing. Between them the King waits patiently. Katara tries to think about this realistically. So far she hasn’t actually been able to fight someone, just freeze a group of soldiers after accidentally freezing her brother. Other than that, she has been mostly playing around with her waterbending and showing Aang what she has figured out.

Katara has a sneaking suspicion that the King would be the worst possible choice for her. The odds are that he is a Master Earthbender while Katara has no training to speak of. Katara is about to pick the thinner guy that gave her the creeps when she sees Silver leaning against a wall in the shadows, trimming his nails with a dagger.

“So… You are saying whoever I point to, that is who I get to fight?”

“Choose wisely…” The King grins mischievously. Katara takes a deep breath before pointing to the boy in the back.

“I want to fight him.” Aang and Sokka look confused from the lower platform. Even the King has to follow where her finger is pointing to see her calling out Silver. “Hmm… I must admit I was not expecting this choice, but I did say you could choose your opponent.” The King raises an eyebrow in surprise but nods along with it. “Alright boy, you will fight her.”

The silver haired boy in question looks up from his nails confusedly. “Wait… ME?!” He asks, pointing to himself. Katara smirks at his shock and nods her head confidently. They make eye contact as he firmly gives his reply. “No.”

Katara stands there with her lips pursed and an affronted look on her face. Again. Without thinking, she yells, “What is it with the males around here!? I can take care of myself!” Everyone in the room, including King Bumi, just stands still and watches her, afraid to say anything lest they unleash another tirade about sexism. 

“Well I don’t see anything wrong with it. You two will fight each other.” The King cracks a nut between his knuckles while passing his judgement, giving Katara a chance to smile smugly at the boy across the platform. He sighs somewhat dramatically and shakes his head.

“Fine…” Katara gets excited as he looks her dead in the eye. “But not now. If my information is correct, she is the last waterbender of the Southern Water Tribe. This means she has no training whatsoever. She won’t even be able to fight properly, let alone be a worthy opponent.” Katara narrows her eyes at him but stays quiet. She can’t deny any of what he has said. The boy then turns to look at the King and continues, “If I am to fight her, postpone it for tomorrow mid-morning or something. Give her the rest of the day with the Waterbending scrolls we have so that she has time to practice them and get at least a little better.” Silver sighs and shakes his head, exasperatedly. “If we were to fight right now, you would be liable to lose control and either get yourself and/or myself seriously hurt.” He says the last bit while maintaining eye contact with Katara.

However, as Katara holds her ground and stares back, she really takes in the look on everyone’s faces, especially on Sokka, Aang, and Silver. Rather than look condescending, they looked on with worry and concern. She really thinks about it, and Silver was right. She is untrained and, though she could do a lot by herself, her opponent is better than her and she really should take the opportunity to learn what she is being given. “Alright, I apologize for my outburst and I can see the merit in your offer. I accept your offer for a day to train,” as she said this, she gives a pointed look towards Silver and adds, “and I expect you NOT to go easy on me during our fight just because I am a girl!” Zuko nervously looks at her companions and responds with a grunt, then at a sour look from Katara, he snarks back, “Okay, I promise I will not go easy on you, but only because you _asked_ so nicely.”

As much as she wants to reject him by pushing it off, she knows that she really hasn’t had any training, and she becomes excited at the prospect of being able to look over real waterbending scrolls for the first time in her life. The King continues to look between the boy and the girl, nodding in agreement with the assessment. Knowing the information that the boy was mentioning, he nods his head and claps his hands to punctuate his announcement. “Very well. Guards, bring the girl to a room that surrounds the pond garden. Bring her multiple large vases of water to the room as well as all of the waterbending scrolls we have. We will continue this duel mid-morning tomorrow.”

-?-

Hours later, Katara is struggling to fall asleep with the full moon rising into the sky. Since the end of the second challenge, Katara had been given a private room with multiple jugs of water and the scrolls to practice with. She had been trying them out endlessly for hours on end, trying to absorb as much as she could, especially the water whip move she nearly mastered. Earlier that evening, Silver had come and delivered food to her. She was scarfing down the food when he stayed around a bit and asked her how she was doing.

Katara proudly gave him a little demonstration of the few things she had learned. He looked very impressed with her progress before he gave her some tips and critiques to her movements and left. She had stared after him for a while, even when the door to her room was closed. She couldn’t help but feel confused by why he was helping her throughout the day. She thought he worked for the King or something, yet he has helped her with all three of the King’s challenges.

Katara tosses and turns in the comfortable bed. After weeks in her sleeping bag on the ground, a wonderfully soft bed was almost too much for her to really get comfortable. On top of that, rather than getting tired, she feels like her blood is pumping harder with rising energy the later into the night it gets. It also didn’t help that the more the moon rose into the sky, the better her senses became. She could feel all of the water in the jugs around her bed, unmoving. But just outside her room she could feel a constant flow of water going back and forth, push and pull.

Katara got up, giving up on trying to sleep. She had always been restless on nights leading up to a full moon, and ever since she started really exploring and learning her bending, that bond with the moon only strengthened. Katara wraps herself in a silky green robe that Silver had brought with the food and gave to her before he left, tying the sash securely around her waist and slips on her fur boots. She could feel the moving water from outside her room, through the opposite door that Silver had brought dinner through.

Katara quietly opens the door into a courtyard surrounded by a garden. There were various trees throughout the ring of the courtyard, some sporting benches and tables around them, while the rest have trimmed flower bushes of various colors that are all mostly muted in the moonlight. The center of the garden is a round pond with lily pads and reeds sticking up through the rippling water. The full moon shines brightly through the opening of the trees, illuminating everything, shimmering magnificently with the pond’s ripples and the large body of water dancing and soaring through the air.

In the center of the water stands a boy with chiseled muscles like a statue and skin so pale and white it looked to glow like snow under the moonlight. A green robe, not unlike Katara’s own, hung from his hips where the top half flapped lazily, baring his torso and arms to the wind. His hips sway mesmerizingly while his bare feet glide across the dewey grass, arms dancing slowly with the rhythm of his body. His hair trails behind his movements, looking to be aflame in a silver ghostly fire as the moonlight shines in its strands. The dancing mass of water glinting mystically as the Waterbender moves and dances with his eyes closed.

Katara finds herself mesmerized and admiring her mysterious crush, standing in the courtyard just out front of her guest room. She watches as the boy scrunches his eyes in concentration, occasionally slowing down as the water seems to tremble. At one point, his body freezes and tenses as if in pain, arms shaking with effort to stay aloft as his water trembles unstably. She hears a grunt as Silver’s back is turned to her and Katara gasps as the light illuminates the gruesome scars torn across his flesh. It looks like he has been slashed again and again in a very brutal manner. She gazes over his tortured back and imagines that it likely still held significant pain, both emotional and physical in nature. She traces her eyes down his back from the snowy white skin to a sickly yellow to green and blue to a dark purple bruise to a bloody crimson red surrounding a sickeningly charred black branding of flame at the center of his lower back.

-?-

The water drops painfully into the pond as he crouches, clutching his knees to stay standing. The burning sensation returns tenfold and causes black spots to appear in his vision as he clenches his teeth and growls through the blinding pain. It isn’t always this bad. Usually it is a dull throbbing pain that might spike with the wrong movement, but it occasionally sears through his entire body at seemingly random times. He has already received a few extra scars from times that this pain distracts him in a fight. He’s just lucky it wasn’t at a lethal moment or he could react enough to minimize the damage.

The silver-haired boy turns his head at the sound of a gasping voice and instantly sees the Southern Water Tribe girl standing in front of her door. He instantly regrets turning his head so swiftly as he immediately goes dizzy and collapses to the ground. He doesn’t know how long he blacks out but he opens his eyes to see shining blue staring into his. She is currently at his side, supporting him in a slouched position against her chest with her hands on his shoulder and chest. For the second time this day, he catches her scent and nearly loses himself in an unexplainable impulse, but his pain luckily yanks him back to his senses.

“Are you alright?” The girl soothingly places a cool hand over his back causing him to sigh, dipping his head into the crook of her shoulder. They stay like that for about ten minutes before the pain recedes back to its usual dull ache. Eventually, he sits back and leans on his arms behind him, his muscular chest heaving in deep breaths. After a moment longer he opens his eyes and bows to the girl sitting in the grass besides him. She looks at him curiously and worriedly.

“Thank you. You helped me a lot. I am sorry for troubling you tonight.” He raises his head to look up at her apologetically. He sees her worry and smiles faintly at her. _‘She is one of the very few who can find it easy to worry about complete strangers.’_ He sits up into a crossed-leg position and addresses her.

“Not at all. I didn’t do anything, really.” She fidgets awkwardly with her eyes half open and a blush just barely visible in the moonlight. “Um… I thought that we could start over. I’m Katara of the Southern Water Tribe. I wanted to apologize for being rude before. Though you did smack my ass with a water whip. Which you really need to show me that move, by the way.” She chuckles nervously and watches him curiously. He was frozen throughout her introduction, but when she chuckles, he also begins laughing.

“Yeah, sorry about the water whip. I was really trying to get your attention to help you out and nothing else worked, so I thought I’d try that. And hey, it worked, didn’t it?!”

She giggles at this, then promptly reprimands herself, ‘ _Katara, did you seriously just giggle?’_ She shakes her head and gestures at him, “So, are you going to introduce yourself too?”

“Oh! Right! Hi, I am Zuko. It is a pleasure to meet you, Katara.” At this gave a flourishing bow and stood up straight to watch her reaction, as he had heard a slight gasp from her direction when he introduced himself. Katara smiles at this and goes to stand as well.

“You are a Waterbender too, right? Where are you from? The Northern Water Tribe?” Katara looks at him excitedly. His reactions and emotions were muted, but when she watches his face and his mesmerizing golden eyes that seem to flicker in the moonlight, she could still see how he smiles slightly. Katara smiles back broadly and realizes that she likes his smiles.

“I’m…” Zuko looks at her and feels a tug at his heart, feeling it pound strongly at a faster rate than he has felt in years. He feels truly alive. Granted his heartbeat has only reached up to what would be considered normal for a human, but he hasn’t felt this speed since he took Orochi’s heart to replace his destroyed one. Zuko looks into Katara’s eyes and realizes that he doesn’t want to lie to her. He would rather tell her the truth and let her hate him for that than lie and let her like him only to despise him later for lying to her. “I am actually from the Fire Nation…”

“Wait! Y-You-you’re Fire Nation? But, you’re a waterbender! What? How? And you are now here in the Earth Kingdom working for a King? What happened?” Katara stammers in surprise. She wears her heart on her face right now with confusion and shock. Zuko nods understandingly. He offers for her to follow him as he leads her to a bench surrounded by flowers and bushes with a coffee table and some tea. Katara is hesitant at first, but as her curiosity so often gets the better of her, she soon follows the boy and catches up with him. Zuko starts prepping the tea as he silently thinks about how to answer, again debating with himself on whether he should try to appease her or give her as much of the truth as he can.

“Yes.” Zuko says after a long moment. Katara was wondering whether he was even going to respond to her. But now she watches his face with rapt attention, catching the traces of sorrow, pain, anger, and fondness all wrapped up in his expressive eyes. “I was born to a family of Firebenders in the upper echelons of the Fire Nation. My _dad_ , mom, younger sister, uncle, cousin, and everyone before us are all Firebenders. But thanks to the interference of spirits, I had become a Waterbender. The Fire Nation was not safe for me, so I faked my death and worked my way here.”

“Wow…” Katara finds herself deeply confused. HE, Zuko, is a Waterbender like her, but was born to a family of Firebenders. That is something Katara believes should be impossible. Though she guesses that the interference of Spirits could possibly do that. “I can’t even imagine what that would be like… I just assumed you were part of the Northern Water Tribe or something… How did you survive in the Fire Nation for so long?”

“Well, my younger sister and I got along well, and for years she had helped me keep my secret. But a little over half a year ago, I knew that I could no longer stay in the Fire Nation. As much as I loved my sister and uncle, who had lost his son in the war, I knew I had to leave one way or another. I hate the war and what the Fire Nation is doing to the rest of the world and how it is ruining itself too. And so I committed treason and put myself in a situation where I was likely to be executed. My sister helped me fake my death so that they believed I had died and would not try to look for me.

“I may have tried to stay and ruin things from the inside if it were just me. But I couldn’t risk bringing my sister into trouble. She was already committing treason by helping me hide my secret. I couldn’t endanger her anymore.” Zuko pauses to assess Katara’s reaction. There looked to be no hints of anger or hate, just shock and wonder. “Afterwards, I met my Mother. She helped me completely _fake_ my death and kind of claimed me as her son. Since then I have then been traveling the world, trying to find a way I can help put an end to the war. I ended up finding an ancient organization who opposes the war and joined their ranks. They are mostly old men like the King, and so I have been going from Master to Master learning what I can from them and completing various tasks.

“Now I am in the middle of doing what I can to fight the war and trying to find a Master who would be willing to train someone like me so I may master my bending.” Zuko raises a hand towards the steam and twirls it in the air, making little shapes out of it as Katara watches and sips her tea.

“How did you commit treason? What sort of crime did you commit?” Katara asked cautiously. In her tribe, committing treason would be something like selling their people to the Fire Nation and letting them know Katara was a Waterbender so they would come back and raid them. Katara shivers sadly, touching her mother’s necklace. She suppresses the memories of the last raid where the Firebenders took her mother away.

“Well, I simply waited for a moment when I had hundreds of eyes with their undivided attention on me and told them what they were doing was wrong. My Mother had given me a vision, showing me what was going on in the world, the truth of it. In the Fire Nation, they are lied to and fed propaganda that they are spreading the Fire Nation’s wealth and technology to the world so that they all can live as good a life as the rest of them… And they believe it… It’s sick and it’s wrong, but most of them are just trying to get by in life like the rest of the world while the leaders are power hungry monsters that are using their people’s undying loyalty to try and rule the world…”

Zuko has to stop and take a moment to breath. His anger rising up, and the growing feeling of wanting to kill something, anything. The impulses scared him, but they recede as Katara places her hand on his shoulder soothingly. She had seen his face contort in a cold murderous rage with such venom in his words. It frightened her, but she felt more of an urge to calm him rather than side her hatred with his. Zuko looks up at her confusedly but then gives her a small thankful smile before taking more calming breaths.

“And so, in the most public situation I could manage, and the biggest crowd possible, I told everyone about my vision. Trying to get some of them to at least think and doubt, to sow the seed of discourse into the _impervious Fire Nation_. That earned me an immediate punishment,” Katara’s eyes widened and she notions to his back. Zuko catches what she is asking and he nods, confirming her suspicion. “Afterwards, I was punished for quite a while. I was waiting for my death sentence when my younger sister came and gave me a chance to fake my death. Now the entire Nation believes I am dead and would never think to look for me. Mother then came to me and cut me off completely from the Fire Nation. So I can no longer say that I am Zuko of the Fire Nation. I don’t have a nation or living family to belong to anymore.”

“But don’t you have your sister? Wouldn’t she still count?” Katara asks. Zuko ponders how to respond but decides to just answer.

“Yes and No. Yes, we still love each other as siblings, and yes I would call her my sister and she me. We still get along and secretly keep in touch as she acts as my spy within the Fire Nation. But no, as in my bonds are broken. I technically died that night, and it is only thanks to Mother that I am alive now. As a bender, you can feel your bond to your brother, and the rest of your family, right? And when someone passes, you feel it within your very spirit that they are gone, crumbling away from where the connection to that person once was?”

“Yes…” Katara looks downcast and touches the choker at her neck again. “In the last raid of my tribe, the Fire Nation took my mother away. I felt her gone before I came running back and found her left dead in our home.” It was Zuko’s turn to return the soothing touch to her arm as they sat side by side on the bench. Their bodies sitting back and angled towards each other, tea forgotten. Katara looks up into Zuko’s warm gold eyes as he watches her, unsure of how he could help make her feel better.

“I am sorry. You should never have had to go through that. It is a horrible and cruel thing, and I wish I could have stopped it. Regardless of whether I were a Waterbender or a Firebender. It is not right. The entire war is wrong and fucked up.” Zuko takes a calming breath for what feels like the hundredth time in just today alone. “But yes. You are bound to your family through your blood and your spirit. I used to have that connection to my sister and clan. But when I died, I broke off from them, as you had unfortunately felt before. It freed me from the Fire Nation, and cut off all bonds I had. I had also cast off my humanity completely…”

Zuko looks worriedly as he starts to explain this. He felt that she should know she is talking with a monster. “I am no longer human, Katara. I gave up my humanity completely when my Mother found me and brought me into her family and named me her son. While you may think that is not so different from your family, and I guess it still isn’t, but my mother is a spirit.” Katara’s eyes widen but also looks at Zuko with suspicion, like he was playing with her. He shakes his head and uses his fingers to pull his hair behind his pointed ears, gave her a wide beastly grin- complete with fangs, and pointed to his silver hair. All suspicion is gone and replaced with uncertainty and fear. This is what he was expecting her reaction to be like. He closes his mouth and hides his ears behind his hair. A sad expression deepens in his face at Katara’s fear. He lowers his head and looks down at his clawed hands, fiddling with his nails. “I am sorry for frightening you… I understand if you wish to have nothing to do with me. I know I am a monster, so I wouldn’t blame you…”

Katara snaps back into control of her emotions at the sound of self loathing and sorrow in Zuko’s voice. Her first instinct was to embrace him and tell him that everything would be alright, but she stops herself. _‘Don’t, Katara...don’t you dare be motherly with the attractive and mysterious guy the instant you formally meet him. You’ll scare him off!’_ Katara takes a deep breath and asks him the thing that was bugging her the most, reaching out to hold his hand reassuringly. “Why did you tell me all of this? I have a feeling that what you are, and your past is not something that you can tell just anyone. So why me?” _‘Way to go Katara. Way to go the other route and make him close off from telling you anything.’_

“I am not so sure…” Zuko feels his heart pound viciously and his cheeks redden as he looks down at Katara’s hands holding his own. “There seems to be something about you…” He looks her in the eyes. “I think that I would like to be friends with you. And to that, I don’t want to keep anything from you… I don’t want to lie to you or mislead you. I would rather tell you all of this and anything you would want to know. That way you can make your decision of whether you would like to be friends with a demon like me…” Zuko freezes as Katara leans forward to hug him tightly. It takes a minute, but he gently wraps his arms around her, not wanting to scare her.

“You may be different, and not human. But that doesn’t make you a monster. From what you have told me, you are already leagues better than those who are truly monsters. I would love to be your friend. I see that you were practicing your Waterbending. Would you mind if we practice together? You seem to really have a grasp on some of the forms, and since you seemed so ‘concerned’ for my well being earlier today, perhaps you could help me with them?” Zuko looks hopeful and excited to have the chance to actually make a friend who accepts what he is and is still okay with him being around.

“Uh, sure. I would like that.”

“Great!! Thanks!” She was really excited to begin and felt a bond in Zuko, as if they were kindred spirits.

-?-

Omashu really didn’t have many scrolls on waterbending, and the ones she was given were the ones he had also been using to learn. At first Zuko walked Katara through the forms and they tested a few things that they weren’t sure on here and there. Eventually, Katara gets the hang of the moves and they start to spar together for practice. They were fairly evenly matched as they struggled to get the upper hand on the other. Their competitiveness inspires them to new things. Occasionally, they would accidentally stumble upon a new move and the other would stop them to try and figure out what they did.

Hours would continue like this as they master the few scrolls present and haphazardly invent new moves as they spar. By the time their practice was drawing to a close, they had digressed into more of an inelegant scuffle. During a quick breather, Zuko looks down and notices a sort of pendant and ribbon a little ways off in the grass. He picks it up, then promptly jumps up at the sound of a snap hitting his backside, causing him to shriek loudly. He absentmindedly placed the item into his robes, so as to not lose it, while facing Katara who had playfully whipped his ass as payback for earlier.

“Oh, you are so on!” Zuko responds to Katara’s mischievous grin with a laugh and smirk of his own. He feints in one direction before dodging the other direction fast enough to retaliate with a whip of his own. Once again they begin another half-assed sparring match that was more fun and the two teenagers flirtingly trying to whip each other’s asses. As they were already exhausted, it didn’t take long for them to devolve into a wrestling match that ends with them falling onto and rolling in the grass giggling like small children. When they finally needed to stop and breath, they lay on their backs and stared at the moon and stars until their eyelids became too heavy to stay awake. There, in the grass, they both pass out with their heads angled towards each other.

-?-

Katara wakes up groggily as light creeps through the window of her guest room and the morning birds chirp their cheerful songs. She sighs blissfully, remembering the events of the last night before they passed out in the grass. She rolls onto her back and feels slightly sad that he wasn’t there anymore. _‘What? Was I really hoping I would wake up with him next to me?’_ Katara rolls to her other side and spots the small stack of scrolls positioned by her nightstand with a white parchment perched on top of it.

Curiously, Katara rolls towards that end of her big bed and leans over to grab the note, rolling onto her back as she holds the note above her to read it. She smiles to see such neat artistic looking handwriting. It had even been written in Inuktitut. His handwriting reminds Katara of her mother’s from when she was teaching her and Sokka to read and write.

_╔_

_Katara,_

_I hope my note finds you well rested and happy._

_Thank you for practicing with me last night. It has helped me a lot._

_I didn’t want to wake you when I woke really early, so please forgive me for carrying you to your room._

_See you at our match later today._

_Your friend,_

_Zuko_

_╝_

_‘Okay…’_ Katara rereads the note a few times before folding it up and tucking it away with her belongings. _‘I may have a crush on him…’_ Katara smiles giddily to herself as she shifts out of the bed. She indeed did feel well rested and quite happy. She mindlessly hobbles to the washbasin with a decent mirror. There her smile drops as she takes in her unseemingly disheveled clothes and the lack of her mother’s necklace. Katara worriedly reaches to feel her neck and ascertain that it was indeed gone.

-?-

Katara glares at Zuko coldly much to his sadness and confusion. He had thought they had a great time last night. _‘Did I do something to piss her off?’_ They currently stood at opposite ends of the arena with many large jugs of water circling around them, placed sporadically in the center so they had plenty of their element to access and fight with. The moment the match was set, Katara jumped straight into an attack where she sent a whip directly for his neck. Startled by her sudden viciousness, Zuko struggles to keep out of her range as she circles him.

This drags on for a while as Zuko tries to figure out what caused this change. Katara’s attacks come again and again as she guides Zuko up against a jug that suddenly explodes at his back and blasts him forward. He lands in a heap on the ground and could already feel various parts of his body injured and starting to bleed. Zuko takes a deep breath as he tries to roll out of the way of a large water whip coming for his neck again. _‘I need to stop thinking.’_ Zuko reacts dejectedly. He does not like being on the receiving end of her hatred as she tries to actually hurt him. He cringes at the unreasonable pain in his heart. _‘What? Am I really that attached all of a sudden that this feels like betrayal? We have just barely met…’_ Zuko struggles to maintain his balance and distance as he argues with himself. Seeing the fierce anger in Katara’s eyes staring daggers into him, Zuko winces and frowns deeply. _‘She is the last person I ever want to fight…’_

Zuko is distracted by his confession when he is suddenly whipped hard across his chest, water slashing through his robes and into his flesh a ways, drawing a long bleeding cut from shoulder to shoulder through the scar where his heart had been missing years ago and the lightning scar from Ozai before his left shoulder. Zuko temporarily loses his consciousness as he staggers back into a cluster of jugs that suddenly explode with ice and water, battering him around like a ragdoll before freezing him in place bruised and bleeding. Zuko’s ache had nothing to do with the pain his body was feeling.

 _‘Feelings and sentiment make you weak, Zuko.’_ Ozai’s corrupting words echo through his mind and he can’t help but agree in this instance. Whatever he was feeling was causing him to be unable to fight _her_. Zuko feels the pain of his heart, as well as the sadness that incapacitates him. He takes a good look at Katara before closing his eyes and shutting away his heart, freezing it so it would not hinder him any longer.

-?-

Katara watches as Zuko closes his eyes in his icy prison and breathes. So far, Katara had been sweeping the floor with him as her veins pounded thickly with power. Part of her was confused and worried about why Zuko looked so hurt and betrayed by her aggression. He seemed so distracted as he tried to dodge her attacks. He had even taken the full brunt of a few attacks she knew he should have been able to resist. She could see the blood trickling from his scalp and into his eyes. It made her heart flutter with worry but she was too furious to care.

Zuko stays still for a few moments and Katara wonders if he has passed out. She takes a step forward and snaps her water whip near his ear to threaten him. “Come on Zuko! What happened? I thought you promised me you wouldn’t hold back! Are you going back on your words now? Typical!” Katara yells furiously at the still boy in her ice. His lack of response only pisses her off more. She snaps at him again and the whip makes contact with the large scar over the center of his chest that is becoming more and more visible as his tunic shreds apart.

The tunic falls along with the ice suddenly melting. Katara feels the air in the room suddenly cool and fog start to form from her heavy breathing. Her eyes widen as she sees Zuko stand there with his eyes watching her coldly and emotionlessly. Katara feels herself shiver in a way that had nothing to do with the sudden drop in temperature. It was like Zuko was no longer there. What was left is cold and heartless. A wind picks up around them and shifts Zuko’s hair menacingly. The green crystal lights of the arena seem to dim as the water prison Katara had encased Zuko in begins to rise and swirl around him with no obvious physical movement from him.

Zuko closes his eyes for one more breath before gliding a foot forward, palms outstretched facing up as a thin film of water spreads across the floor and instantly ices over. Zuko calls to the water around him and makes a large whip that arches its way towards Katara with chilling deftness. Katara promptly creates a wall of ice to block it before getting out of the way. Despite no longer being in range of the attack, it still startles her how his whip slices through the ice effortlessly. _‘Finally taking this seriously are you?’_ Katara grimaces in concentration and resumes her attacks. Yet, despite her rage, she could not shake off the creeping feeling of something dangerously wrong going on with Zuko now.

Time drags on as they trade blows, but this time the tide has changed. Zuko was no longer squabbling and struggling. He was focused and cold. He would shift out of the way of Katara’s attacks with a mere centimeter to spare as he would press on forward. This was his time, he pushes Katara around the arena as he commands large streams of water around him both offensively and defensively. Katara shivers at Zuko’s icy demeanor but presses on, swiftly and accurately adapting to the change of flow.

It is clear to the King that both combatants have a latent ability that is being put to the test here. Zuko seems to have an innate instinctive quality to his bending that pairs dangerously with his strength and obvious combat experience. He may merely be a beginning Waterbender, but by no means was he new to drawn out fights or being around bending. His experience and ability to flow naturally with what came to him makes him rather frightening. That said, the King was very grateful the boy hadn’t tapped further into the demonic energy within him. Had he done so, Bumi would have no choice but to personally step in.

_‘The Avatar’s friend however, is marvelous in her own right. Her bending is clearly gifted by the spirits and has a sharp intelligent mind capable of adapting and learning in the moment. While Zuko is based on beastial/spiritual instinct, Miss Katara seems to have the making of a pure genius. It is only a matter of time before she becomes a Master Waterbender.’_

The King watches with intent curiosity as the two teenagers battle it out, hoping that Orochi would not rear its demonic head from within the boy. Going on an hour of fighting now, Katara would devise a way to counteract Zuko’s attacks and defenses and manage to land a hit or keep him at bay. In response, Zuko reacts just in time as his body takes over and his mind absorbs everything that is happening. Back and forth the tide of their battle continues. Each pushing each other further that the other has to then rise up to the challenge or be defeated. Push and pull is the way of their fight.

Their audience can only watch in amazement as they witness the bending and skill improve right before their very eyes. What was first the sloppy beating of beginners has transformed by leaps and bounds into an articulate and intricate dance of give and take. They are certainly equals. Evenly pushing and pulling each other to new heights. Their movements and forms become more solid and precise as their energy starts to run low, their bodies adapting to preserve energy while maintaining the same output.

It eventually becomes clear that this match will only end when one manages to get a lucky upper hand or one or both of them passes out from exhaustion. Katara becomes visibly fatigued as she reaches the point of sluggishness that gives an opening she can’t defend. Zuko on the other hand, has trained nearly his whole life in firebending and had spent the last five years alone working on extending his stamina. Especially with his experience with a hundred Agni Kai a day for months on end. But, as he is not nearly as trained with waterbending as he was with fire, he was unable to exercise his full capable control over his energy use. Still, this only lets him get by with enough energy to pull off one last surprise attack that blasts Katara with a large wave of water that overwhelms and trips her to the ground on her back and freezes her there.

Coldly asserting the fight to be over, Zuko recedes the icy armor he had built around his heart, letting himself thaw out and return to normal, the atmosphere of the room also returning to its usual temperature. He walks over to Katara who is frozen to the floor and pulls all water away from the both of them, releasing her and drying them off in one tired movement. He apologetically reaches his hand out to help her stand up, exposing his wrist with Katara’s necklace wrapped around it. Upon seeing it, Katara summons up a burst of angry energy to trip his feet from under him and drag him to the floor where she straddles him and holds a knife to his throat. Sokka, munching on the Genamite crystal like popcorn, hollers out “Go Southern Water Tribe”, only to be unheard by the girl he was cheering on.

Katara leans over Zuko, threateningly pressing her knife to his throat, and hisses, “You have approximately ten seconds to tell me why you stole my necklace and took advantage of me last night. I trusted you!” Zuko flinches in shock at her accusations before looks up dejectedly at her.

“What do you mean? I never stole from you, nor did I take advantage of you! Why would you accuse me of doing that? I thought we were friends…” Zuko looks visibly confused and disconsolate, causing Katara to waver. “What did I do to make you hate me? Was it carrying you to your room or leaving you? What did I do? Please tell me.”

“No! My clothes! And my Mother’s choker around your wrist!” Katara uses her free hand to grab Zuko’s hand that had the memento. Zuko’s confusion deepens so Katara spells it out for him. “My clothes were all out of sorts when I woke up. What did you do? Take advantage of me?” Zuko’s eyes widen with mortification that quickly turns to anger. He swiftly thrusts his hips up against her and uses their clasped hand to push her sideways, dislodging her from on top of him and replacing her, straddling her as he restrains her hands above her head.

Zuko leans in so that their foreheads nearly brush as he glares furiously into Katara’s eyes. “How could you think I would do something like that to you? I had found the necklace in the grass and was picking it up when you first water whipped my ass last night! I was about to ask about it because it looked like a Water Tribe thing but got distracted by you. I realized that I still had it when I was doing my morning tasks and wrapped it around my wrist so I wouldn’t forget to return it to you. I am no thief and I would never take advantage of a female in _that_ way! Why would you think I would do that to you?”

“Well you did grow up in the Fire Nation! You wouldn’t be the first or last to do such things like a monster!” Zuko doesn’t resist as Katara flips them back over and holds Zuko’s hands above his head firmly. Katara’s knife forgotten on the ground a couple rolls away, Zuko reacts like Katara had just stabbed him in the chest. Zuko slumps against the ground resignedly, hurt clear on his face. _‘I know I am a monster… a demon. I guess it was too much to hope to get past that and become something else. Regardless of what I do, she will always see fire despite me no longer being able to call them my nation or people even if I wanted to…’_

Katara looks down at the way Zuko suddenly gives up and realizes what she has just said to him. Remembering their conversation from the night before, Katara blanches at the venom and hatred she took out on Zuko. She may have been really angry but she realizes that Zuko is giving up and letting her resentment affect him, although she should know he is nothing like what she was comparing him to. _‘He’d take all of my anger and hatred, let me harm him in the worst way I could even though he has nothing to do with it wouldn’t he?’_ Katara scrunches her eyes shut as the memory of Zuko’s whipped back and his tale as they talked the night before. An ugly frown quickly spread across her whole face as she opened her eyes at the sound of his broken-hearted words.

“I would never want to harm you, or ever do something you did not want me to. It’s not that I don’t like you or am not interested, but I’d never take advantage of you. I’d rather kill myself than become a monster like that…” Zuko starts to explain himself awkwardly and he begins stammering as he can’t quite articulate his feelings in words. Zuko’s broken-heartedness transitions to an intense embarrassment that causes his dorkiness to exfoliate endlessly. Katara looks down at him fondly as her anger has completely melted away to be replaced by how endearing and cute she finds his scrambling for words, exacerbating the situation. Eventually Zuko stops and breathes to calm down. Once in control of himself again, he looks up at Katara pleadingly as his raspy voice comes out shy.

“I had woken up with my clothes also all out of sorts. Like how our clothes are now… But I felt like I would be taking advantage of you if I tried to fix it for you. So, instead I placed you in bed with your sheets over you… I am sorry.” Katara looks down at her clothes to see her tunic has indeed almost come undone, as it hangs loosely towards Zuko’s chest with her chest wrapped in her sarashi in view. Zuko’s own tunic was gone, torn to shreds during their fight, exposing his extremely fit and scarred chest and abs.

“Oh…” All Katara can get out as she embarrassedly looks at Zuko’s body beneath her, both teens blushing madly. With a pained grunt, Zuko tries to prop his torso up into a slouching position but collapses back with an ‘ _oof’_ and causes Katara to fall gracelessly onto Zuko’s chest. The resulting momentum essentially causes them to faceplant and accidentally kiss. They both temporarily freeze and hold their breaths as their minds catch up to their new situation.

Realization of what she is doing dawns on Katara and her mind screams at her, _‘WHAT ARE YOU DOING!? Yes, he is VERY attractive and nice. He has this mysterious air about him that makes me want to know more… And he is also a Waterbender who understands what it is like to be the only one and unable to learn. He can cook well, and seems to be far more accepting of my feminism that anyone else. To think that I could actually find such a man that seems to like me… But we just met! Despite how well we seem to connect… Should I really be doing this? And after all those things I had just accused him of that turned out to be baseless… Would he even be interested in me? Of course I form a crush on the first attractive guy my age that isn’t my brother… Hmm, he tastes like spiced smoked wood…’_

Zuko has gone completely still, not daring to touch her or resist as he fears he will get slapped if he makes the situation even worse somehow. _‘Come on Zuko… you are a_ LITERAL **MONSTER!!!** _She is stunning and a wonderfully kind person to even be willing to be friends with someone like me… She is the very embodiment of her element and an angel, while I am the opposite of her in every way. I’m scarred, cursed, probably look like a freak, and am a DEMON. And despite how nice she is, I doubt she will ever see past the face of one who_ was _Fire Nation. The very nation who murdered her own Mother… And when she realizes that I am a true demon she’ll likely run away and never wish to see me again…’_

Zuko’s body goes limp as his heart refuses to listen to the resignation of his mind. To Katara, Zuko softens and molds his body to accept her weight completely, and his silky soft lips part as if welcoming her. And so she responds in kind, kissing him tentatively as she tests the response she receives. At Katara’s soft kisses all thoughts disappear from Zuko’s mind, leaving him with only his raw emotions and images. A lot like how Agni communicated with him years ago.

 ** _**Soft, Warm, Safe, Home, Right, Peace, Want, Mine, Hers**_ **

These intense and raw feelings all flood Zuko at once, taking root in him firmer in a way words never could. It startles him, but he gives into his roots, sliding his hands to grasp her hips above his and return her asking lips with his answer. It will eventually dawn on Zuko that giving in this way leads to no more awkwardness and embarrassment. It’s direct and true, leaving no room for doubt and uncertainty. Unfortunately, it’ll take him a long time to figure that out and realize what these feelings are and mean to him. All he knows right now is that they are there and taking over his body and making him latch onto Katara and return her kisses passionately.

The teens give into their impulse and indulge in the sharing of passion for a moment until they are interrupted by a loud obnoxious holler, bringing them back to reality as they shyly get to their feet and turn to their oncoming audience so they wouldn’t be caught making out. Sokka comes bursting through the cloud that slowly clears in the arena. Zuko and Katara glance at each other as they realize that the cloud has prevented the others from seeing the end of their fight and kissing. Thankful to not have to explain anything to her friend and brother, she accepts Aang’s and Sokka’s hugs while looking past them to see Zuko give her a small shy smile from besides the King.

-?-

It turns out that the King of Omashu is Aang’s old friend from before the hundred year war. King Bumi. It was a heartwarming reunion that made Katara smile as she watched and ignored Sokka stuffing his face. When Bumi had griped about Aang literally not having changed at all in a hundred years, Katara hears Zuko trying to hide a laugh with a cough. She turns to look at Zuko amusedly. She had to admit it was funny and sweet watching Aang and Bumi. Their time comes to a close after lunch and Aang requesting for Bumi to ride the mail chutes with him again.

Katara is busy placing their belongings and the supplies King Bumi had given them on Appa while Aang says one last goodbye to his friend. Someone walks up to her and lifts the big package out of her arms, causing her to see who was helping her. Zuko smiles down at her as they stand on the other side of Appa from everyone else. He sets the package to the side and gives Katara a boost to Appa’s saddle where he would pass the items up from below. Katara smiles back. She finds it nice actually having help take care of these things. Throughout their trip so far, it has only been her doing these things. With Zuko’s help, the packing finishes in a matter of moments rather than a solid 20 to 30 minutes of Katara struggling on her own.

“So, are you going to be able to come with us?” Katara asks as she slides down from Appa and goes to stand in front of Zuko with her fingers intertwined behind her back. Zuko rubs the back of his neck and shifts shyly despite his impressive power and strength.

“I am afraid that I will have to stay behind a little longer to take care of a few more things before I head up north. I wish I could come. I think I would like traveling with you. If you even wanted me to, of course…” Zuko lowers his head in embarrassment and Katara takes this chance to give him a hug.

“I think I would like that too. We will be eventually getting to the North Pole and the Northern Water Tribe. I don’t know when or how long it will take to get there, but if you can, you should join us there. That way we could continue learning waterbending together.” Katara smiles warmly up at him, enjoying how his eyes start beaming with excitement.

“I-I’ll try and work things out so I can join you then. I look forward to seeing you again and wish you safe travels.” Zuko responds happily, giving her one of his smiles she has noticed no one else gets to see. “OH! Before we forget… I should return this to you.” Zuko quickly unwraps Katara’s choker from his wrist and holds it up to her. Katara looks at it, surprised that she had completely forgotten about it in the moments of their kiss. She raises her hair up to bare her neck to Zuko and turns her back to him.

“Would you?” She looks up to see him nod timidly. He carefully reaches his hands to the front of her neck where he lightly presses the pendant under her Adam's apple and gently wraps the ribbon around her neck before clasping it in place. Katara had always imagined this is what it would be like to have a lover of her own place an engagement choker around her neck. Both teens blush deeply as the feeling of Zuko’s fingers brushing against Katara’s neck sends sparks into both of them. They silently agree that this moment feels even more intimate than a passionate kiss.

Katara turns around and smiles widely. “Thank you Zuko.” He nods quietly as they stand there and look into each other’s eyes. They stay like that silently while goodbyes are finished, just staring at each other. After a while, Aang and Sokka climb onto Appa and look over the other side to see the shy teens having an intense stare off. Aang feels a slight pang and shakes his head while Sokka raises an eyebrow.

“Katara, are you coming?” The two jump as they hadn’t realized they were being watched or how much time passed. From a ways off, King Bumi smiles knowingly at the two. After all, it wasn’t a normal cloud that shielded the two from sight at the end of their match. Bumi had subtly raised a dust cloud into the air to give the youngsters a moment before Aang and Sokka were too impatient to wait.

“Yes, Sokka, I am coming!” Katara yells up to her older brother that always seems to have wrong timing for everything. She watches Sokka disappear into the saddle with a shrug before turning back to Zuko and giving him a quick kiss. It lasts only a few seconds before she turns away shyly and climbs Appa’s side and gets in the saddle. From there she perches herself at the edge and continues to watch Zuko. He waves after her with a small smile until he disappears from sight as Appa soars into the sky. Only when all of Omashu disappears from sight does she turn back to her brother and friend.

“So, that was a fun trip after all, huh?” Aang pipes up the happiest he’s been since the Southern Air Temple. Sokka burps in response while rubbing his full stomach.

“Yeah, and it had great food too.” Katara rolls her eyes at Sokka before turning to Momo who curled up in her lap.

“Yeah…” Katara sighs dreamily, looking out into the sky and wondering when she will see Zuko again.

-?-

Zuko stays in the courtyard waving until he can no longer see the 10-ton flying bison in the sky. After a moment longer, Zuko finds himself sighing longingly before he turns to a cough from his side. He looks up to his right and sees King Bumi standing strongly for a roughly 110 year old man. He was also watching the sky for Appa to disappear like Zuko.

“So my boy… It seems that the turn of events happened as you had said. You have no idea how surprised I was when you told me Aang woke up in an iceberg after 100 years…” Bumi looks down at the very young man whose eyes were lit with a spiritual fire that only powerful benders or those spiritually connected would be able to see. “I thank you for letting me know. It was truly great to be able to see my friend after so long.”

Zuko nods respectfully but stays quiet like usual. He rarely ever spoke to people unless he had to. Something that Bumi had noticed changed around the pretty Water Tribe girl. “I also believe you have proven yourself to me. First Master Piandao with your martial prowess and beginning your initiation into the Order. After seeing your waterbending progress marvelously after only less than half a year of training, especially in that match with the splendid waterbender girl, I approve of your addition and formally welcome you into the ‘Old Man Club,’ my boy!”

Bumi and Zuko turn to look at each other fully. The old man reaches for Zuko’s hand and places an ancient White Lotus tile into Zuko’s palm. “Crazy Earth welcomes Orochi into the Order of the White Lotus.” Zuko clasps the tile in his hand before taking a step back and bows deeply to Bumi.

“Thank you Master Bumi. I am honored with this opportunity to restore peace and balance to the world.” Bumi returns the bow and both rise at the same time. Zuko catches sight of one of Bumi’s attendants, another initiate that has yet to receive his tile, walking into the courtyard, leading a packed and saddled black Ostrich-horse towards them. The attendant bows to the others respectfully and receives nods from Zuko and Bumi. Zuko raises a silent eyebrow to Bumi and nods his head to the mount.

“Ah yes… You will be leaving for the north as well today. We need you to do some surveillance of Pouhai Stronghold for a while. Once you have gathered what you can, it would be best if you head up to Jeong-Jeong and report what you have learned to him.” Zuko nods, starting to rewrap his forearms, replacing the shoes with his travel boots, placing his dagger at his hip along with his large waterskin, and slides on his cloak. Bumi catches Zuko’s questioning look into the sky and chuckles. “While I have a feeling you will travel with them at some point in the future, I didn’t have you leave with them today as I felt they would hinder your current task.”

Zuko nods understandingly. It would have been difficult and dangerous to get them to wait a week or so around Pouhai Stronghold while he gathered intelligence. Zuko smiles at the thought of being able to see Katara again sooner than he thought. He likes the girl. But he just isn’t sure how much yet.

“Thank you for your hospitality Master Bumi. I will be on my way then.”

Bumi nods his head as Zuko familiarizes himself with his new ostrich-horse, Asahi. This particular beast is a typically volatile and violent breed who only bonds with one owner in its lifetime. However, it is also the best for quick and consistent traveling. The animal instantly takes to Zuko, chirps and nuzzles its newest rider happily. Zuko agilely swings his way into the saddle and pats his new friend fondly. With a silent nod, Zuko pulls up his hood and sets off as noon turns to early evening.

  
_End of Chapter 5_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, a couple things that I believe should be adressed.  
> 1) The different nations do have their own languages.
> 
> The Languages of Orochi's AtLA World:  
> Fire Nation = Nihongo (Japanese Language) / Bongo (Japanese for Sanskrit)  
> Air Nomads = Khondi (Domba, nomadic ethnic group from India)  
> Air Monks = Dzongkha (Tibetan script used by Buddhist Monks)  
> Earth Kingdom = Zhongwen (Chinese Language) / Fanwen (Chinese for Sanskrit)  
> Norther Water Tribe = Aynu-itak (Ainu Language)  
> Southern Water Tribe = Inuktitut (Inuit Language)
> 
> There is a whole history behind why Dzongkha is the "Common" language of the world, but you'll just have to find out why in the story.
> 
> 2) To those who are wondering, yes, there is a strong attraction between Zutara. To those that think this may have been a bit too fast, take into consideration that Zuko at least partially runs on beastial/dragon instincts, compounded with the raging horemones of teens their age, and furthered by having met in pretty fair terms in comparison to Cannon. That's not even considering how AtLA was a kids show that completely ignored the hormones we all went through at their age... There is more to it, but that will come to light later.
> 
> Well, I sincerely hope that you enjoyed the new chapter. Please feel free to comment if you have questions, critiques, or even just to be a Bard of praises. It all is welcome and I look forward to your responces.  
> Until next time.


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